Saadet Party leader Arıkan reacts to minimum wage: 'It melted by 2,000 liras before it even hit pockets'

Saadet Party Chairman Mahmut Arıkan attended his party's İzmir Provincial Congress. Speaking from the podium, Arıkan began his remarks by addressing the economic situation. Stating that the raise given to the minimum wage had already melted away in the very first month before it even reached people's pockets, Arıkan said, “The minimum wage melted by 2,000 liras before it even hit pockets. 2 million retirees are forced to work. It takes 52 years of savings to be able to own a home. 31 percent of homes have leaking roofs. 16 million people cannot heat their homes.”

Speaking about the earthquake region on the second anniversary of the February 6 Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes, Arıkan said the following:

"In the earthquake region, even basic needs are still not fully met. Housing units were not delivered as quickly as promised. Our people were condemned to live in containers and tents. Unemployment is increasing every day, and shopkeepers are closing their shutters. I wish we had built resilient cities with earthquake taxes. But these were not done. We will bury zoning amnesties in history. We will make urban transformation human-oriented, not rent-oriented. We will use earthquake taxes for their intended purpose. We will conduct disaster management before a crisis, not during a crisis."