Main opposition to talk about concrete campaign projects

“We have six significant projects that are catchy but will also directly solve the problems of citizens. We will tell our branches to ‘just explain the six projects,’” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told a group of journalists on April 9. 

“We know the situation of citizens – tradesmen, farmers and public servants who are deep in debt. The AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] will come out with a positive campaign. What will it say? Will it say ‘I did not bring about this situation?’ Who has been governing the country for the last 12 years?” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Who is the man of his word? 

“The phrase ‘There are no resources,’ is one of the most rubbish phrases I have ever heard in my entire life. There are resources for the supporters [of the AKP], but there are no resources for pensioners. When the occasion arises, they know how to sing their own praises: ‘we are one of the biggest 20 economies in the world.’ In those 20 economies, whose pensioners are as miserable as ours?” he asked, referring to the government’s criticism of his promises to give two bonus wages to 10 million Turkish pensioners.

The social-democrat party leader emphasized that the party had made calculations about the costs of their promises, down to the very last kuruş, adding that members of parliament would be exempt from this promise. 

He recalled how Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had said their government was not trapped by implementing “an election economy,” and argued that the government had actually failed to follow through on any promises it made to unemployed people and pensioners. 

“I am a man of my word. There is no bigger mistake than comparing me with other politicians. I am neither [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan nor Davutoğlu. If I were making populist propaganda, then I would have promised a monthly bonus wage to pensioners,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Referring to his background as the head of the country’s old Social Security Institution (SSK), he suggested that he knew how to “collect” money, as “one who knows this issue best in Turkey.”