He did so on 2 December after his return from President Kennedy’s funeral in Washington. The two smaller parties wanted out and when they withdrew their ministers from the cabinet, İnönü had no choice but to resign. When the local elections of November 1963 produced a clear victory for the opposition Justice Party, the fate of the coalition was sealed. There were many frictions and the worst was the proposal, sponsored by İnönü as part of the reforms demanded by the constitution, for a land tax.
A partial amnesty was agreed upon but this coalition did not work any more smoothly than the first one. In May 1962, the JP rejected as insufficient a proposal to reduce the sentences of the imprisoned Democrats and withdrew its ministers from the cabinet, whereupon İnönü formed a new cabinet, this time based on a coalition of the RPP with the two smaller parties (RPNP and NTP). The coalition’s failure was brought about by the delicate problem of an amnesty for the former DP politicians – where the cabinet had to tread warily because of the sensibilities of both the military and the old DP supporters in the JP – and by the project for a planned economy, which was supported by the RPP and the military but bitterly opposed by the JP.
Many JP members suspected İnönü of collusion with the military. There was inevitably a lot of bad blood between İnönü and the Republicans on the one hand, and the JP, which claimed to be the heir to İnönü’s old enemies in the DP, on the other. The parties bowed to the pressure and a 20-member cabinet was formed on 20 November but it was a marriage of convenience, not love. Instead, heavy pressure was put on the two parties to collaborate in a coalition to be led by the veteran İsmet İnönü. Parts of the army wanted to intervene after the disappointing election result of September 1961, but the army’s most senior officers and the AFU prevented it.
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