Erbakan reiterates: We are ready to withdraw our candidate

Speaking at his party's rally in Antalya, New Welfare Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan reiterated his 3 conditions for withdrawing his candidate in Istanbul.

Erbakan said, “As the National View (Milli Görüş), we do not enter elections anywhere to help someone win or lose. If the government announces now that it has ended trade with Israel, and secondly, that it is closing the radar base established in Kürecik, Malatya, to protect Israel against Iranian missiles, and thirdly, that it has increased pension salaries from 10 thousand to 20 thousand liras, we are ready to withdraw our Istanbul candidate today. We say, challenge accepted.”

Erbakan included the following remarks in his speech:

“We were in Hatay yesterday as well. We addressed the famous trolls from there. Day and night, they say, ‘The New Welfare Party will make someone win, so it should withdraw its candidate. It should withdraw in Istanbul too.’ As the National View, we do not enter elections anywhere to help someone win or lose.

We are entering the elections to initiate ethical municipalism in Istanbul. We want to start an era of ethical municipalism by protecting the city of Sultan Fatih from statue-focused and rent-seeking municipalism. Have you ever seen our late leader Erbakan withdraw his candidate in his 42-year political life just so another party's candidate could win?

Is such a thing possible? Our late leader Erbakan even used to say, 'If there are two National View supporters in a town or city, one will be the candidate and the other will vote for him. The National View will still enter the election there.' While these facts are clear, they talk nonsense,” he said.

"TROLLS DISGUISED AS JOURNALISTS, WE ARE ADDRESSING YOU FROM HERE"

Stating that he was addressing the trolls from Serik, Erbakan said, “Trolls disguised as journalists who receive their salaries from the government, we are addressing you from here. If the government announces now that it has ended trade with Israel, and secondly, that it is closing the radar base established in Kürecik, Malatya, to protect Israel against Iranian missiles.

Thirdly, if they announce that they have increased pension salaries from 10 thousand to 20 thousand liras, we are ready to withdraw our Istanbul candidate today. We say, challenge accepted.

You make all sorts of nonsensical claims, saying we made secret deals or took money; we are making this call with such an open heart and sincerity. We will withdraw our Istanbul candidate when these 3 conditions are met. We are announcing it from here,” he stated.

"TOTAL MEMBERSHIP ACROSS TURKEY HAS REACHED 516 THOUSAND 800"

Stating that they continue to grow as a party, Erbakan said, “My colleagues indicated the membership numbers via message. Our party's total membership across Turkey has reached 516 thousand 800. With this number of members, we have surpassed the MHP and the IYI Party to become the third-largest party. After the election, we will reach our target of 1 million. We will also surpass the CHP. We will be in power in 2028. Citizens are running to our party to attain the National View economic model. 

Our nation is tired of rent-seeking municipalism. Rent-seeking municipalism that chases after the model of its official vehicle instead of worrying about the nation's problems, that is busy changing the furniture in its office, and that gets 3-lira jobs done for 10 liras. On the other side, there is statue-focused municipalism, where bribery, waste, favoritism, and nepotism also exist. Furthermore, while the nation's real problems remain unsolved and the city's issues await solutions, they go and erect statues in every corner for millions of liras. We will bury this statue-focused and rent-seeking municipalism in the ballot box,” he said.

Pointing out that municipalities are neck-deep in debt, Erbakan stated that this debt has reached 100 million in districts, 1 billion in provinces, and up to 10 billion in metropolitan municipalities. He stated that the total debt of municipalities has risen to 250 billion.