Opposition slams Erdogan for minimum wage hike

Opposition slams Erdogan for minimum wage hike
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Leaders find the increase insufficient, refute Erdogan’s claim of “protecting the public against inflation”

On Friday, Turkey raised the minimum wage for the second time in a year. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the 30 percent hike himself. Staying true to his character, Erdogan highlighted the measures his government took since the end of 2020 in order to protect the public against soaring inflation. But his sugar-coated words fell on deaf ears. Opposition leaders took to social media within minutes of Erdogan’s announcement. Many found the otherwise substantial increase to be insufficient.

Meral Aksener, founder and head of the Good Party, smote Erdogan on Twitter. She said, “The government that could only raise the minimum wage to the hunger threshold at the beginning of the year and announce it as “good news” failed to do even that this time.

A government that is unable to protect its people against inflation is politically bankrupt. This means that the time for ballot boxes has come.”

The spokesperson of the main opposition party CHP, the Republican People’s Party, Faik Oztrak also criticized Erdogan. Referencing Erdogan’s slip of the tongue when announcing the minimum wage hike and his self-identification as an economist, Oztrak said “those who call themselves “economists” can’t even do basic math to calculate the minimum wage hike accurately. But the fake economist is so desperate that he announces the wage hike that leaves those who earn minimum wage under the inflation himself. The people will hold you accountable for this when the ballot comes. The end is inevitable.”

Sera Kadigil, a deputy of the Workers’ Party of Turkey, accused Erdogan and the AKP government of pushing half of Turkey to starvation. In a quote tweet, she stated that “Half the country earns minimum wage. They’re pushing half the country below the hunger threshold. It is hard enough to endure the hell they have created for a week, let alone a month.”

The official annual inflation rate of Turkey is 73.5 percent, with many independent economists calculating the actual rate to be well above one hundred percent. The Turkish Lira has lost half its value against the US dollar in the past twelve months.