Özgür Özel reiterates minimum wage proposal during budget talks: 'Only for the first half'
Speaking in Parliament, CHP leader Özgür Özel recalled their 30,000 lira proposal for the minimum wage, stating that this figure is only for the first half of the year and that they will not accept anything lower.
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Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel spoke at the 2025 budget negotiations in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) General Assembly.
Özel began his speech by wishing mercy upon the 6 soldiers who were martyred in a helicopter crash during a training flight in Isparta's Keçiborlu district this morning, and extended his condolences to their families.
Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:
"I stand before you today as the Chairman of the Republican People's Party, which founded the Republic of Turkey together with its nation and achieved great development in a short time by creating the first budget of this state. Around this time last year, I was before you as a newly elected chairman.
Unlike that day, we were the main opposition party and the second party in the last elections. Now, I carry both the pride and the responsibility of being at this podium as the Chairman of the Republican People's Party, which became Turkey's first party in the March 31 elections by the will of the nation.
The Republican People's Party is a party that founded the state. We take pride in our party and all its members' respect for the state, their rushing to serve in the military when the state calls, their payment of taxes, and their standing in the right place in any situation that would put the state in a difficult position. One of our principles is, after all, statism.
But whenever those who govern the state personalize power, use the state as a tool for their own interests instead of governing with merit and justice, and eliminate the distinction between state and party, it means someone has pitted the state against the nation.
The government has not learned the lesson from the message voters gave at the ballot box on March 31. This budget is neither developmental nor solidarity-based.
The CHP's minimum wage proposal for only the first half of 2025 is 30,000 lira. Our minimum wage proposal is 30, and we are saying we will not accept anything below that."