Özgür Özel: There is no moral ground for taking votes to change the regime and then joining the AKP

Criticizing the announced minimum wage rate in harsh terms, Özel called on citizens to protest businesses that crush the rights of workers.

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel stated that they would react to the announced minimum wage rate with rallies they will organize.

Özel said the following:

2025 is now an election year!

Starting from cities where labor is concentrated, we will launch an intensive campaign together with workers and retirees under the slogan 'We cannot make ends meet; if there is no livelihood, there must be an election.'

We have formed a permanent action committee; I had called on unions to discuss what can be done to force the government into an election, noting that using the power derived from production is important...

Our calls and reactions against those who do not grant workers their rights continue.

None of us will support those who crush their workers just because Tayyip Erdoğan said 'crush them.'

We will demonstrate our power derived from consumption.

We will protest those who do not grant workers their rights; we will not consume what they produce.

We will say, 'Do not consume, do not buy, do not buy their shoes, do not use their tires'.... We will stand against those who try to crush their workers by obeying Mr. Tayyip.

Participating in a live broadcast on Halk TV, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel made evaluations regarding the minimum wage determined by the AKP for 2025. Stating, "We did not say 30,000 TL comfortably either," Özel indicated that the minimum wage should have been at least 50 percent higher.

"THE MINIMUM WAGE NEEDS TO BE AT LEAST 50 PERCENT HIGHER"

We were expecting a minimum wage like this. You know, this government had a general discourse on the minimum wage: 'We will not let the minimum wage earner or the retiree be crushed by inflation.' Of course, when we look at the total of the years, it is true that this is not the case, but in the last few years, there has been a point of raising wages at the rate of inflation, and it is clear that inflation will be 50 percent. Therefore, the minimum wage needs to be at least 50 percent higher.

If you recall, a few months ago, something emerged saying, 'Inflation might come out high; we should not raise wages according to realized inflation, but according to targeted inflation.' Now, when you talk about targeted inflation and look at the Medium-Term Program or the revisions they last announced, the situation there is a disaster. They have mentioned figures between 25 and 30 percent. If they do 30 percent, this is what happens. About 3 months ago, when these things started to be discussed, we told our friends at the MYK meeting that we must put forward a realistic expectation regarding the minimum wage and that we must all campaign for this until December 31 or until the minimum wage is announced.

"WE DID NOT SAY 30,000 TL COMFORTABLY EITHER"

Of course, what did we base our minimum wage demand on? To be honest, we did not say 30,000 TL comfortably either; in fact, it should be a much higher figure, but unfortunately, in this country, people sometimes do not try to understand those who do not understand them. In other words, those who determine the minimum wage or the bosses who employ them have been exploiting for years, but people still say it is too much. In fact, given the grievances created over the past years, even 35,000 or 40,000 TL would not be too much for today's minimum wage of 17,000 TL. Considering the living standards in Turkey, even that is not enough.

"TÜİK: THE STATISTICAL INSTITUTE THAT DOES NOT UPSET TAYYİP"

But we did this: if they are talking about 30 percent, there is realized inflation that will be close to 50 percent in the meantime. But we asked, 'Is this real for the minimum wage earner?' Because TÜİK—we always say its expansion is 'The Statistical Institute That Does Not Upset Tayyip' (Tayyibi Üzmeyen İstatistik Kurumu), and this gets the most applause because retirees and employees know how their salaries are stolen from their own pockets and that this is done through TÜİK. This is TÜİK's inflation, but what does it calculate based on? There is a ping-pong ball in TÜİK's calculation, in the inflation basket; there is a copper rod; they put all sorts of things in it, and that basket is 50 percent. Since a minimum wage earner does not eat ping-pong balls and does not pay their child's allowance with a copper rod, we looked at how it is done. The minimum wage earner has basic expenses; looking at their situation on January 1 and their possible prices in December, we saw that the real inflation—the inflation experienced by the minimum wage earner—was calculated by our friends as 78 percent. In other words, it is like the 'felt temperature'; it is the inflation felt by the minimum wage earner.

EVALUATED DEFECTIONS FROM THE OPPOSITION TO THE AKP

Özgür Özel gave the following response to the question of what he thinks about Nedim Yamalı, who resigned from the Future Party (Gelecek Partisi) and joined the AKP:

This is not the first name; there is Ersagun Yücel. He entered the election from the CHP lists upon the request of his party before the election, and immediately afterwards, he returned to the IYI Party.

Shortly after, he switched to the AKP. I don't get this ambitious about anyone, but he came with a thousand requests on the last night and truly took the place of a successful CHP member. Then he switched to the AKP. We will make him unable to show his face in public.

To speak about Yamalı, there is justice and there is conscience; when entering the election from the CHP, votes were requested against the palace regime. You, the citizen, voted with the CHP for our party to change the palace regime... There is no moral ground for taking votes to change the regime and then going to the AKP...