Cabinet revision unavoidable!

Unakıtan will probably not be here during the local elections. And what he’ll do after the March 29 elections will be decided by his doctor and family. The Finance Ministry requires a high beat. Will Unakıtan’s health allow this? Even if he is healthy enough, will the Unakıtan family, known for strong family ties, allow him to go back to active politics and the ministry seat? These questions are being asked inside the AKP and the government, too. What will Erdoğan do then? Will he wait for the return of Unakıtan? Or will he appoint a new finance minister on the eve of the local polls?

Unakıtan is out of surgery and the recovery period will start soon. He will stay in a hotel near the hospital together with his family and will be kept under control for over a month. Erdoğan calls him "brother" and he is among those Mr. Prime Minister trusts. So whatever Unakıtan says it will be done. I mean if he is in good condition Unakıtan will go back to the office, otherwise he will resign. For this reason, Erdoğan will wait for a while and the revision in the Cabinet will be taken care of after the elections.

A thorough revision postponed by Erdoğan during the AKP’s closure case will then be unavoidable. The election results will determine the dimension of changes. If the AKP remains below the 47 percent that it’d gained in the last polls, the Cabinet members will pay the price. And then a radical change in the Council of Ministers will most likely be the case because Erdoğan is not a leader who is fond of changing team members.

Latest rumor on Unakıtan

The latest rumor is about Unakıtan. If the key name Unakıtan wants, he may be assigned to a less demanding seat such as deputy prime ministry. Now, this is the question, if Unakıtan steps down, who could be his replacement? The AKP Istanbul Deputy Alattin Büyükkaya, the AKP Parliamentary Group Acting Chair Mustafa Elitaş, Sivas Deputy Mustafa Açıkalın and the AKP deputy leader Bülent Gedikli as well as the AKP Group Acting Chair Nurettin Canikli are among candidates.

It seems that Erdoğan will have to consider the local elections results and restructure his Cabinet in a way to carry the party to the 2011 general elections, whether with Unakıtan or not! Otherwise it will not be easy for Erdoğan to keep the AKP group together after the elections...

SECOND ARTICLE

Fashion gods in Parliament

Political parties are making strange moves in election periods. The AKP issued the following circular about the "attire and color combination" to the branch offices: "Officials who are on duty at the election offices should pay utmost attention to the attire and color harmony. This is, at the same time, associated with the team spirit." A similar warning needs to be made at the AKP Parliamentary Group because in men’s attire the team spirit is invisible. As for the female deputiesÉ it is at the highest possible level because they look like modelsÉ

THIRD ARTICLE

Ethics and democracy

As discussions over trade relations that led to the resignation of the AKP’s Şaban Dişli and the Republican People’s Party’s Mehmet Sevigen’s involvement for a building lot sale continue, a meeting titled "Legislative Ethics" was held. John Williams, head of a anti-corruption organization, was a speaker. If you wonder what Williams said behind closed doors, here it is, "If there is no ethics, there is no democracy!"