A new group has been formed by parliamentarians with the leadership of lawmakers from Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ahead of PACE General Assembly sessions.
PACE General Assembly sessions will be held in Strasbourg next week, and before these sessions begin, a group has been formed out of mostly AKP deputies. The group with 20 members is called “Free Democrats.” It was reported that the group has 7 members from Turkey, 5 from Italy, 4 from Azerbaijan, and 1 each from Serbia, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and San Marino.
At least 20 parliamentarians from at least 6 countries is needed to form a group at the PACE. Italian parliamentarian Adele Gambaro has been appointed the chair of this pro-AKP group. New group is the 6th political group at the PACE.
