Main opposition Republican People’s Party leader Özgür Özel is due in Brussels on Dec. 18 to meet with European left-wing leaders at a gathering of the Party of European Socialists (PES).
Özel is scheduled to speak at the meeting ahead of a European Council summit. The session is set to focus on issues including the war in Gaza, Ukraine, trade and a range of other issues.
At a previous PES meeting in Brussels on June 26, Özel criticized Europe for what he described as insufficient pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“It would be wrong to say that Erdoğan feels even 10 percent of the pressure he should feel from the European Union,” Özel told socialist leaders at the time.
Özel previously attended a PES congress in Amsterdam held on Oct. 16–18, after PES representatives joined the first leg of the CHP’s international rallies in Brussels on Oct. 12.
He is expected to return to Türkiye on Dec. 19 and attend a rally in the northwestern city of Edirne the following day. The event will be part of the CHP’s twice-weekly rallies demanding the release of its presidential candidate, jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been behind bars since his arrest in March.
During the rallies, the CHP has also called for early elections, though Türkiye is not due to hold national polls until 2028.
Later, Özel is expected to host a delegation from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) involved in contacts with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan as part of Türkiye’s latest peace initiative. That planned meeting was postponed following the death of the CHP’s Şehzadeler Mayor Gülşah Durbay.
