“They sat, they talked, they fell apart”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he would follow his planned course after the Nation Alliance collapsed over who should run against himself in the presidential elections scheduled for May 14.

“Iranians have an expression. They sat, they talked, they fell apart. This has been just the same,” Erdogan said referring to the argument in the Nation Alliance.

Good Party leader Meral Aksener on Friday announced her party's withdrawal from the opposition Nation Alliance, saying they would not bow to pressure to accept CHP (Republican People’s Party) Chair Kilicdaroglu as the opposition's joint candidate.

“We said months ago that it would come to this. No matter what they do, we continue to work on our plan, through our roadmap," he said.

He added that while the opposition struggled for power, his party sought to help the earthquake survivors.

The public split on Friday in an alliance of opposition parties followed months of simmering discord in the group, and was seen by analysts as a blow to opposition hopes of unseating Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades.

The CHP has the largest voter base in the alliance followed by the Good Party. Kilicdaroglu has said that there is no room for political games in the alliance and signaled that more parties could join the bloc.

Five remaining leaders of the opposition alliance met on Saturday and were expected to issue a statement following discussions.

Erdogan's popularity had been dipping amid a cost of living crisis even before last month's earthquakes.

The opposition has failed in previous national votes to pose a serious challenge to the president. It has cooperated more closely since taking control of major municipalities, including Istanbul and Ankara, from the AK Party in local elections in 2019.