Striking commentary from Mahfi Eğilmez on the local elections! 'To put it briefly...'

Turkey has left the March 31 Local Elections behind.

According to unofficial results, the CHP reached a vote share of 37.74 percent, becoming the leading party in the local elections, while the election results sent a shockwave through the ruling AKP.

Economist Mahfi Eğilmez published a striking analysis regarding the local elections.

Recalling the results of the May elections, Eğilmez asked, "I see comments everywhere saying 'the voter has sent a message,' but there is something I cannot understand: What happened to the voters who did not send a message in the general elections held just a year ago, that they suddenly intended to send one within a year?" and continued with the following remarks;

"There are nearly 61.5 million voters in Turkey. The voter turnout in this election was around 78 percent. This means that roughly 48 million of the 61.5 million voters cast their ballots.

There are nearly 16 million retirees who are all voters, and just as many wage earners who are also voters. Assuming that 78 percent of these voters cast their ballots in line with the general trend, we can estimate that around 25 million voters who are retirees or earn wages voted in this election.

This means that slightly more than half of those who voted in the election consist of retirees and wage earners. Of the roughly 16 million active workers, nearly 7 million work for the minimum wage.

HIGH INFLATION AND COST OF LIVING

Retirees, minimum wage earners, and wage earners other than those in high-level positions are unable to make ends meet with the wages they receive in the face of high inflation and the rising cost of living.

The government cannot provide solutions to the problems of this segment, whose situation has deteriorated rapidly in the face of the rising cost of living, especially over the last year. It can neither lower inflation nor provide enough wage increases to offset the cost of living. This is because the budget has become unmanageable as a result of increasing public sector waste and various misguided policies.

"IF THEY HAD GRANTED ANOTHER WAGE INCREASE, THE RESULT MIGHT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT"

To put it briefly, in my opinion, the most significant factor behind these results was the inflation that spiraled out of control due to the AKP's misguided economic policies, and especially the high cost of living.

The environment created by the income distribution that was turned upside down by these effects and the completely broken wage system led the vast majority of those who earn wage income, especially retirees and minimum wage earners, to vote against the AKP.

If the AKP had granted another wage increase to retirees, minimum wage earners, and wage earners in general before the elections, the result might have been different. However, in that case, there would have been no budget left to cover the remainder of the year.

If you lower interest rates in an environment where inflation is rising while your currency is not a reserve currency, if you try to prevent the Turkish Lira from finding its true external value by holding the exchange rate and spend your foreign exchange reserves for this purpose, and if you underestimate the issue of savings while incredible waste occurs in the public sector and you support consumption, you cannot make wage increases, and this is the result.

We have said it for years, but we could not get the point across: Those who stray from science will be devoured by the wolf. This sometimes happens a bit late, but it happens eventually."