Presidential candidate Demirtaş promises to defend labor rights

KOCAELİ

Demirtaş speaks during a public meting in the town of Darıca in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on July 16. AA Photo

Selahattin Demirtaş, the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has vowed to defend labor rights, saying he would not approve any law coming from the Parliament “if it is against the workers.”

“I will look deeply into any law submitted,” Demirtaş said, speaking at a public meeting in the town of Darıca in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on July 16.

“Oppressed people, the poor, laborers, workers, public workers, tradesmen, villagers, and farmers are found across Turkey,” he said, adding that people from different ethnic roots and beliefs all shared the wish for a free, honorable equal and just future.

“We want a president who will veto any law made at Parliament that is against the [benefit of] workers, laborers, public workers, or farmers,” he said.

“People work ‘like slaves’ for 1,200 Turkish Liras in a country where the poverty line for a family with four members is 1,700 liras,” Demirtaş also said, adding that workers were “murdered” at workplaces every day, highlighting occupational accidents.

Demirtaş called on citizens to go to the ballots for the Aug. 10 elections, the first round of the country’s first ever public-vote presidentials, saying they should vote with “enthusiasm, excitement and pride.”
The HDP co-leader also criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for exploiting public resources in his presidential campaign.

A third candidate running for the presidency is Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu,  the former head of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (IOC), who was nominated by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).