Erdogan confirms breaking alliance with nationalist party

Turkey’s ruling AK Party will not form an alliance with the nationalist party for the 2019 local elections, but cooperation between the two parties will continue, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, after the nationalists pulled out of the alliance earlier.

Speaking to members of his AK Party in parliament, Erdogan said he wanted to carry the alliance into the future, but added that it would run independently from the MHP in the March 2019 local election, Reuters reported.

Erdogan’s AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) formed an alliance ahead of June elections, but have since been at loggerheads over a disagreement about the MHP’s call for an amnesty for some jailed criminals. Today MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said his party would not seek an alliance in the 2019 local election.