The election that was held on June 8th in the UK revealed unexpected results. According to the results, The Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party lost 12 deputy seats by gaining %42.4 of the votes and could not gain the majority in the Parliament. Labour Party in the opposition gained %40.1 of the votes and increased the number of its deputies by 29 in the Parliament. By gaining %7.3 of the votes Liberal Democrats increased its votes whereas Scottish National Party and United Kingdom Independence Party decreased their votes. In order to gain the majority in the Parliament, Conservative Party requires another party’s support. The president of Liberal Democrat Party that has 12 deputies declared that they will not work in coalition with Conservative Party or Labour Party. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party is expected to help Conservative Party in the formation of a new government.

IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu evaluated the election results and he stated that recently as in the Brexit referendum, US presidential elections and French presidential elections, also in this election, an important message was given.

‘The recent elections in the US and EU reveal surprising results regarding the change of the system. The wind of globalisation, the effects of economic crisis and the signals of moving to multi polar system affect the domestic political situation and cause significant fluctuations in vote proportions of centre parties which can be called as main stream parties. Early election that was called by the Prime Minister Theresa May in order to have more powerful majority in the Parliament while negotiating the Brexit was backfired and May could not gain the majority she wished for. Beside this, Labour Party in opposition could not gain the majority so it created the possibility of forming coalition or minority government. It can be said that the terrorist attacks in the UK were also influential and the incapability of the ruling party in struggling against terrorism caused discontent in the people’

‘To summarize the election results in one word, we can say that the supporters of ‘Hard Brexit’ lost’

Zeytinoğlu stated that the election results have important effects with regard to process of the UK leaving the EU:

‘Due to the fact that the election did not result in a way May wished for, the process of Brexit become unclear. After the election by June 19, UK was expected to start Brexit negotiations with the EU. However, it does not seem to be possible to act in accordance with this schedule. If Conservative Party can form a government with the help of other parties, the negotiations can start but in this case, May will not have a strong position in negotiation and it will be difficult for her to enforce legislation regarding Brexit in the Parliament. The must to gain support of Democratic Unionist Party may require her party to choose to conduct soft Brexit negotiation. In case of change of the leader in Conservative Party, Brexit and how this process will be conducted will be open to debate.

Lastly, IKV Chairman stated that these results point out the diversity of opinions whether the UK should leave the EU or not and the process is open to new debates:

‘When we look at the election results, we see that young people and majority of the people in the regions that voted to stay in the EU in Brexit referendum voted to Labour Party or Scottish National Party in Scotland. This situation puts forward that the view of Conservative Party regarding the Brexit negotiations does not have any support. It can be clearly seen that the decision of leaving the EU jagged the political fault line across the United Kingdom. The most voted two parties, Conservative Party and Labour Party is in favour of continuation of Brexit process. In other words, we do not expect retraction from Brexit. However, how the Brexit will be negotiated and the new framework of relation after leaving the EU will be determined depending on the election results. To summarize the election results in one word, we can say that supporters of ‘Hard Brexit’ lost.’