Erdoğan meets with Mehmet Şimşek

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has met with former Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, according to a columnist in daily Hürriyet.

The meeting between the president and Şimşek took place on May 29 and it was “positive,” said Abdülkadir Selvi, without providing other details.

Selvi mentioned comments that if Şimşek assumed a role in the new cabinet, the economy management team may also include former ministers Lütfü Elvan and Cevdet Yılmaz.

The columnist also said that there are rumors suggesting that the Finance Ministry and the Treasury will be separated again.

Şimşek served as the finance minister under Erdoğan from 2009 to 2015. He was the deputy PM between 2015 and 2018.

In a tweet he posted on May 28, Şimşek congratulated Erdoğan on his election victory.

“I wish success to our president in his service to our nation,” Şimşek wrote.

“We are designing a finance administration that has an international reputation and an investment- and employment-oriented production economy.” Erdoğan said in a speech he delivered on the night of May 28 after results showed that he was re-elected as president.

“Confidence and stability are two very important notions… we will continue our path with this approach and form a strong economy administration on the pillars of these notions,” he added.

Resolving the problems caused by the increases in prices due to inflation and compensating for the welfare losses will be the most urgent items on the agenda of the upcoming days, Erdoğan said.

Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said on May 29 that the new cabinet would be announced in the coming days.

The new cabinet will consist of young and dynamic people, Kalın said in a televised interview.