The leader of the European Parliament’s social democrats will await a letter from Turkey’s main opposition party regarding its attitude toward the upcoming constitutional referendum, the deputy has said.
In an earlier statement, Hannes Swoboda said the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, should vote in favor of the constitutional amendments package that will go to a referendum Sept. 12 if it wants to be considered a true social democrat party.
In an interview last week with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, the CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP would send Swoboda a special letter explaining why the CHP plans to say “no” to the constitutional amendments out of the interests of justice and a democratic culture.
Speaking to the conservative Cihan news agency Monday, Swoboda said he heard from the Daily News that the CHP was planning to send an explanatory letter on its reasons for “no” vote and that he was awaiting the letter.
With regard to the letter sent by the CHP’s Brussels representative, Kader Sevinç, to another vice-president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament that complained about Swoboda’s advice to the CHP, Swoboda said the letter was not appropriate in content nor was it a good sign for Kılıçdaroğlu.
