Ankara’s draft budget for 2019 — the first since Turkey’s transition to a new governance system that concentrates power in the hands of the president — has reinforced opposition concerns that the country’s rulers are building an authoritarian regime with a heavy Islamist flavor. The lavish funds allocated to the presidential office and the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) are at the core of the criticism directed at the bill, which passed through parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission last week and is expected to reach the general assembly for a final vote in December.

The executive presidency system -- tailor-made for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – was narrowly approved in a controversial referendum last year and took effect after the presidential polls in June, replacing the country’s long-standing parliamentary regime.

Under the budget bill, the budget of the presidential office — which was 845 million Turkish liras in 2018 — is being increased by 231% to 2.8 billion liras ($529.6 million), according to Abdullatif Sener, a former finance minister and now a lawmaker for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) who sits on the Planning and Budget Commission. Funds earmarked for purchases of goods and services for the presidential complex are up 631%, while its personnel expenditures are up by 179%, said Sener, who served also as deputy prime minister under Erdogan before falling out with him. The bill earmarks another 3 million Turkish liras (about $567,000) as health care funds for the president and his family, he told Al-Monitor.

Amid the economic crisis bruising Turkey, the only pay hike is granted to the president. Garo Paylan, a deputy for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, said, “The president has asked the people for sacrifices, but he himself gets a 26% hike on his salary. The presidential salary is raised to 74,500 Turkish liras [some $14,000]. Including his [previously earned] pension, the president’s monthly income reaches 105,000 Turkish liras [nearly $19,900].”