Turkish ruling party sets up mobile food stalls to lure votes
Turks are lining up in the thousands to buy subsidized vegetables at mobile stalls in Istanbul and Ankara as the ruling party attempts to fight soaring food prices ahead of elections.
Thousands of citizens queued to buy cheap vegetables for a second day today at mobile stalls erected by the government, part of a last-ditch bid to combat inflation and curry voters’ favor ahead of municipal elections that are due to be held on March 31. The stalls sell eggplants, tomatoes, onions and peppers at half the market price, in line with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s newly declared war against alleged profiteers and speculators.
“Just as the state finished off the terrorists in the caves, we will finish off those who are unleashing terror in the wholesale halls," he roared at a public gathering on Sunday in an apparent reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The government’s move has spurred widespread controversy with critics accusing it of spending taxpayers' money to subsidize the ruling party's own election campaign. The accusations grew louder after the president of the state-run agricultural credit fund, Fahrettin Poyraz, let it slip today that the temporary stalls would remain open for only two and a half months.
“The state has become a greengrocer,” wrote Deniz Zeyrek, a prominent columnist for the opposition daily Sozcu. “Setting aside the long lines, where one waits for an hour, the [three-kilogram] limit set for the amount of vegetables that one can purchase, reminds us of ration cards [from the war years],” Zeyrek noted.
