2023-05-10 12:23:46
Time.news – Minimum wages, pensions, energy and reduced bills to win the elections. This is the strategy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to broaden his base of consensus and gain ground in a difficult run-up to a reconfirmation that at the moment seems far from obvious.
5 days after the appointment with the polls Erdogan has raised the minimum wage of civil servants by 45%, bringing the salary of those employed at the lowest level of the state employment hierarchies to almost 800 euros (15,000 Turkish lira). A measure that directly affects about 700,000 people and which comes with the promise of further increases in the month of July. A promise clearly linked to the outcome of the vote.
“We will continue to work on minimum wages and pensions. In July we plan a new adjustment, based on inflation trends. We will leave no one behind. These are steps we will take, despite the 100 billion dollars needed in the areas affected by the earthquake “, said Erdogan thus touching on two of the main topics of this campaign, namely the economy and management of the emergency caused by the earthquake of last February 6th. Precisely in this regard Erdogan had recently promised that 319,000 homes will be returned within a yearbut the overall project involves the construction of more than 600,000 homes.
Just before the earthquake, last January, Erdogan had given the green light to the latest increase in minimum wages and pensions in the public sector, guaranteeing a 30% increase for active and retired public personnel. Erdogan has thus confirmed that he is oriented towards a wage adjustment policy, rather than towards a change of economic strategy, in recent years characterized by a continuous cut in interest by the Central Bank which has attracted criticism and disputes and brought the inflation to exceed 100% in early 2023.
Another pillar of Erdogan’s strategy concerns energy. Recently, the incumbent president claimed responsibility for the discovery of oil fields in the east of the country and declared that Turkey is “ready to produce 100,000 barrels of oil a day”. Energy dependence on imports constitutes the first item of expenditure for the Turkish economy and the steps taken towards economic independence represent one of Erdogan’s strong points, who to avoid problems in gas supply has signed an agreement with Moscow with which the payment of Ankara’s debts to Gazprom have been postponed and supplies secured.
“We will no longer depend on other countries for energy, Turkey is destined to become an exporting country”, Erdogan said, repeating the words he had already pronounced on the occasion of the inauguration of the first reactor of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant. A plant intended “alone to cover 10% of the needs of the entire country”. A country that has always enjoyed a strategic position, but which has never had its own resources before. Words that come as further confirmation of the fact that energy, in a critical moment for Europe, has paradoxically ended up becoming one of the pillars of Erdogan’s electoral campaign.
In addition to the inauguration of Akkuyu, on April 19 the Turkish leader attended the ceremony for the land passage of the gas found in the Black Sea in 2020. Black Sea gas that will be free for one year, Erdogan promised again today, who had already lowered the cost of electricity bills by 15%. In practice, both the gas field in the Black Sea and the oil reserves on the border with Iraq represent the two most important fields in the history of a country that imports 96% of the energy it consumes. but also flagships of the strategy with which the president wants to prevail at the polls.
The appointment with the polls on May 14 sees the outgoing president engaged in a tight race for reconfirmation in which at the moment the polls show him head to head with the challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of a coalition of 6 parties and secretary of the party Republican CHP. The final choice of 10-15% of undecided will be decisive. Votes that Erdogan wants to grab by increasing wages and promising new upward adjustments, if he were to be confirmed in power.
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