Welfare also came in a close third in both borough selectmen and city councils, receiving 18.94 percent and 19.09 percent of the vote respectively. In December 1997, when it became clear that the army might ban Welfare from politics, members of the Islamist movement created the Virtue Party. After Welfare and its leader, Necmettin Erbakan, were banned, most of the party's parliamentary deputies quickly regrouped and joined Virtue. Recai Kutan, a moderate civil-engineer who had served as Minister of Construction and Minister of Energy under Erbakan, was named the party's leader. Rumor had it that he had been hand-picked by Erbakan.
Many questions linger concerning the true character of the new party.
Virtue claims to be a new party and not simply an extension of Welfare. In its election campaign, it has tried to redraw itself as a center-right party. Despite these differences, most Turks are skeptical, believing the party still threatens the secular nature of the Turkish state. It is unlikely that the army would allow it to be part of a ruling coalition. Support for the party is strongest in the East and Southeast, rural and central Anatolia, and in the shantytowns that surround Turkey's big cities.