Turkey's new government coalition is a shotgun wedding between two right-of-centre parties which are ideological twins. However, its success will depend not on ideology, but the personal chemistry between the leaders.
The history of rivalry and antagonism between the True Party Party's (DYP) Tansu Ciller and the Motherland Party's (ANAP) Mesut Yilmaz is not a good omen for the coalition's durability. Although at grassroots level it is generally expected that the two parties will sooner or later merge, there is no indication that this is about to happen. On the contrary, the coalition kicked off with a major disagreement: who should fill the top three bureaucratic posts in the treasury, central bank and privatization office? All three posts have been vacant since last December when Ciller recruited the incumbent directors and sent them to parliament.
"It was agreed that no one who left the bureaucracy during Ciller's term in office or was caused to leave should be appointed," said one of Yilmaz's aides. This narrowed the field to such an extent that for weeks the posts had to remain vacant. And Ciller is not easy to please. During her three years in office she worked with three central bank governors and as many secretary generals of the treasury.