BY MURAT YETKIN
RADIKAL- The total number of Parliament deputies who resigned from their parties yesterday climbed to 23. While 14 of these resignations came from the opposition Republican People’s Party, (CHP) the other nine were from the ruling Justice and Development Party. (AKP) Now the Parliament has 365 members of the AKP and 163 of the CHP.
There are currently five political parties in the Parliament, but the sixth party will likely be established when Mustafa Sarigul, once a member of the CHP, joins the Socialist Democrat People’s Party (SHP). Still, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Felicity Party (SP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and a Kurdish party also found deputies in Parliament. Although it was announced that it had nothing to do with the recent upsurge in resignations from both the AKP and the CHP, a soon-to-be-passed bill that abolishes financial aid for political parties with fewer than 10 members in Parliament clearly aims at discouraging deputies from leaving their current parties.
New political parties are being established, deputies are one by one quitting their parties, but none of these cause great turmoil or create new expectations. Even our fragile stock market doesn’t seem to take notice. Why?
There are a few reasons why these resignations haven’t had serious consequences. First of all, the AKP is at ease, now that it has come to see the only way to bring about a change in our Constitution is to reach a compromise with the CHP. And the CHP has noticed that the only way to shake the AKP’s dominance in Parliament is to hold another series of national elections, and that’s something that only the AKP has the authority to decide on. Therefore, both CHP leader Deniz Baykal and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan are acting with confidence that a few group members’ resignations won’t change the current equilibrium in Parliament.
AKP and CHP members can’t affect their parties by threatening to resign. Neither do they have much influence on other parties in Parliament. So they aren’t seen as heroes or saviors by the parties they join after they resign. Instead, they are viewed as a mere voice in the Parliament, or even a refugee. Former AKP member Erkan Mumcu’s case might be an exception, since he’s been embraced by the Motherland Party (ANAP) as a savior.
In any case, these new parties don’t have innovative new policies to offer. Notice that the AKP and the CHP owe their success to their detachment from political corruption.
All these reasons spell out why a series of resignations no longer have a great impact in the political arena.