Turkish election pledges belie serious economic problems
Both the ruling party and the opposition have pledged various incentives and social welfare benefits ahead of next month's vote.
The pledges Turkish politicians are making to voters ahead of the June 24 presidential and parliamentary polls have come to resemble an auction.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) started with enacting a 24 billion lira ($5.6 billion) incentives package, which bears directly or indirectly on almost the entire population. In addition, the government plans to spend 38 billion liras on various social welfare benefits this year.
Opposition parties have raised few objections to such spending, wary of alienating millions of voters, mainly pensioners and poor people, who are the primary beneficiaries of such assistance. Let alone objecting to the payouts, the opposition is making its own generous pledges.
Commenting on a government plan to give pensioners two bonuses of 1,000 liras this year, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said earlier this month that “pensioners deserve more.” During the parliamentary debate on the bill, the CHP submitted a proposal to raise the bonuses to 1,604 liras each, the equivalent of one month's minimum wage. CHP lawmaker Tuncay Ozkan was eager to point out on Twitter that AKP deputies rejected the proposal.
