New Party leader vows focus on bread-and-butter issues

KAYSERİ

Yeni Party Chairman Özgür Özel addresses members of the public during his visit to the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri on Aug 29. (AA Photo)

Main opposition New Party leader Özgür Özel vowed on Aug. 29 to steer clear of political polarization and personal attacks, saying his newly formed party would focus instead on issues affecting people’s daily lives.

“We will never again fall into the game of gaining votes through political arguments, quarrels, polarization, demonization and othering... Instead of engaging in petty disputes with them, we will fight for the people’s bread,” Özel told supporters in the central city of Kayseri.

He also pledged that his New Party would win the next election, adding that “such a victory would have no losers.”

“This march is not my personal march. It is the march of those who have been left without hope, those who have been left behind, those who have been oppressed,” he said. “The doors of the New Party are open to everyone... We are New Party members who open arms to you not to polarize, but to embrace.”

Özel outlined a series of policy pledges, including state-funded social security contributions to enable homemakers to retire and the establishment of day care centers in every neighborhood.

The remarks came as Özel prepares to formally open the New Party’s headquarters in Ankara on Aug. 31, with the party’s first top board meeting scheduled to be followed by a meeting of its founders council. Özel is also expected to deliver a speech following the meetings.

The four-story building in Ankara has undergone about a month of renovations and preparations.

On July 24, Özel resigned from his post as Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader, breaking away with 90 fellow lawmakers to establish the New Party. His departure came two months after an Ankara court annulled the CHP’s 2023 leadership election over alleged irregularities, removing Özel as chair and reinstating former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.