'We must force the government into an early election'

The CHP Provincial Mayors meeting was held in Çanakkale. The opening speeches of the program, which took place at a hotel, were delivered by Çanakkale Mayor Muharrem Erkek, CHP Deputy Chairman Gökan Zeybek, and CHP Chairman Özgür Özel.

In his speech, Özgür Özel said, "Today, we are with the mayors elected in 21 provinces of the Republican People's Party, which emerged as the first party 47 years after the March 31 local elections, the founding party of Turkey, the first party, and the first party of today."

Devoting a significant portion of his speech to the problem of unemployment, Özgür Özel continued as follows:

"Yesterday, TÜİK announced the figures; they are talking about a 0.3 percent drop and an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent, but as cannot be hidden even in TÜİK's own figures and as confirmed by all segments in DİSK's detailed research, the real unemployment rate in Turkey has risen from 8.8 million to 11 million. In other words, with the addition of 2.2 million new unemployed people just between August 2023 and August 2024, broad-based unemployment has reached 11 million. What is broad-based unemployment? It is those who are unemployed, those who have given up looking for work, those who can no longer look for work due to their impossibilities, or those who, even if they appear to have a job, are, for example, an unappointed teacher working at a taxi stand from midnight to 8 a.m. in exchange for pocket money. There are 11 million people in this country who have not been able to reach their real jobs. Our Ankara Metropolitan Municipality is hiring only 113 municipal police officers. 4,000 people applied within two days. All of the applicants are educated people, and unfortunately, among the applications, there are law school graduates and people who have graduated from faculties of education. There are now people in Turkey who have finished law school but cannot open a law office, or if they do, cannot make a living, and who, unable to find a job anywhere else, accept becoming a municipal police officer. We are in such a process in Turkey.

"VOICES ARE RISING EVERYWHERE"

On the one hand, the unemployed feel helpless, they feel abandoned; this is not true. Retirees also had no voice; we held 105 rallies, we invited retirees to every rally, our last rallies turned into retiree rallies, retirees made their mark at the ballot box on March 31, and it is currently one of Turkey's most important agendas. The situation is no different for minimum wage earners, nor is it different for the unemployed. When we held the first agricultural rally, they were saying, 'What will happen with these thematic rallies?' We held 8 of them; now farmers from all over Turkey are participating in the rallies we hold or are showing their local reactions themselves, holding their own rallies. Voices are rising all over Turkey. We attach importance to the action that TÜRK-İŞ will take in the coming days. We attach importance to the action that KESK will take at the end of November in the coming days.

"TÜRK-İŞ'S RALLIES SHOULD BE EMBRACED"

Whoever is holding a rally somewhere, for example, the 'we cannot make ends meet' rally and the rally held by TÜRK-İŞ, is a rally that we all must wholeheartedly support, embrace, and encourage, despite all of TÜRK-İŞ's past inaction and all our criticisms. Whoever says 'we cannot make ends meet,' whoever objects to the salary they receive, whoever objects to their product not being worth money, let us stand by them. Because we must transform the opposition, without distinction between opposition within parliament and opposition outside, into a social opposition all together and force this government into an early election in some way. I had said that in the success we achieved on March 31, with votes reaching 38 percent, there were votes from other parties, that this was a yellow card, that we promised them on the election fields, and that we would not make an early election call by using this as a pretext, and I had said, 'Now you have seen the yellow card, it is time to hear their voices.

If you hear the voice of the retiree, if you hear the voice of the minimum wage earner, if you hear the voice of the farmer and the tradesman, I will not make an early election call. Because then there will be a livelihood, but if you do not hear them, then if there is no livelihood, there will be an election,' we had said. Since that day, the government has not lifted a finger regarding these vulnerable segments I mentioned. It did not raise the minimum wage; the retiree was receiving 10 thousand, they made it 12 thousand 500. The 10 thousand liras in January became 12 thousand 500 liras. That 12 thousand 500 liras currently has the purchasing power of 8 thousand liras in January. In other words, only nine months have passed, the money in hand has become 2 thousand liras weaker, more dysfunctional, and its purchasing power has fallen. Therefore, it is the duty of all of us to raise the objection together, to force this government into an early election, and to protect what they have forgotten after the early election."