İYİ Party chair Akşener vows to restructure 8 billion-lira debts of 4.5 million citizens

ANKARA

Revealing her party’s economic program ahead of the June 24 snap elections, İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has vowed to restructure the debts of 4.5 million Turkish citizens, worth 8 billion liras, through a project called the “Turkey Solidarity Fund.”

“We will purchase the debts from consumer loans, credit card and overdraft accounts of 4.5 million citizens whose debts are under legal supervision of banks or consumer financing companies and whose debts have been sold to collection companies as of April 30, 2018,” Akşener said in a press conference on May 7, introducing the İYİ Party’s economic program.

Naming the project the “Turkey Solidarity Fund,” she said “we will erase the debts that fit this criteria of all unemployed people, retired people and minimum wage workers.”

Some 80 percent of the debts of citizens and students with low wages will be erased through certain criteria, while the remaining debt will be paid with deferred payments up to 10 years, Akşener added.

“We will free the unemployed and the retired of their unpaid debts, as well as veterans and the families of killed soldiers,” she said.

The İYİ Party chair, who is also running as the party’s candidate in the presidential election, added that the fund will cost 8 billion liras to the budget “for once only in 2018.”

“Thinking about the 10-year payment plan of our citizens, the cost will be low. We are perfectly aware that recovery through additional borrowing will not beneficial,” Akşener said.

“It is our duty to help our citizens with this condition, as the state has helped big companies in difficult situations,” she added, noting that the “Credit Guarantee Fund” granted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) “has undertaken a 15 billion-lira loss” in recent years.

Meanwhile, Akşener also condemned an attack on İYİ Party members campaigning in Istanbul, calling on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu “to take necessary measures.”

“Ensuring election security is the duty of the government. We are not a side in the tension. We stand for fraternity and peace,” she said.