An interesting expectation shift has emerged in Turkish politics.
Since it came to power, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has come to the fore more with investments. Its motto has been infrastructure investment, good quality service and a robust economy. While approaching the last local elections, it was apparent that the infrastructure investments were mostly complete and that the voters were increasingly turning toward individual demands. However, the AK Party did not perceive much of the electorate's demand shift in the first place, detaching itself from the pride of the mega investments it had made.
The global effect of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the excessive emission of currency by all central banks had an inflationary impact on the Turkish economy. Like other global economies, the government tried to increase investments, services, production and exports, but amid these efforts, it started to sense that the demand curve of the electorate was changing gradually.
So, although the AK Party has usually brought up strategic issues related to transportation, health, production, economy and the defense industry during its governance, it has started to implement policies aimed at directly addressing the individual demands of voters on the way to parliamentary elections.
Since the end of last summer, the government has tried to eliminate the economic imbalance caused by the high inflation rate. In an inflationary environment, businesspeople can go about their jobs properly when they are careful with accounting. But citizens and civil servants with fixed salaries and low incomes are adversely affected by an economic imbalance from a high inflation rate.
The government has increased the salaries of civil servants above expectations, along with a substantial raise in the minimum wage. In particular, by significantly increasing the social aid budget, it tried to eliminate the shortfalls of low-income segments affected by the economic turmoil.
The voters listened to the opposition block's discourse until the end of last summer. Then the electorate turned their backs as they realized that the opposition block seemed far from providing a cure for their problems. Concurrently the AK Party government's focus on successive individual requests sharpened the decision of many voters. The government began to meet citizen demands one-on-one. The government was able to stop the uncontrolled price rise after the improvement of civil servant wages. The first half of the yearly increase to the minimum wage was satisfactory. The government announced a series of new rules and regulations to address specific voter requests.
While solving the dangerous problem of accumulated interest on student loans by waiving them, the government almost doubled all scholarships and student loans, including those of university, master's and doctorate students. Last year, students who had to change cities to study also had problems with being placed in dormitories. The AK Party resolved the accommodation issue this year. There are almost no complaints left on this issue.
The AK Party has concluded a troublesome issue that was on the agenda for years after a detailed study and provided relief to the millions who could not retire due to age restrictions. The government eventually removed the age limit for retirement. The beneficiaries of this arrangement are nearly 2.5 million people and such quantity will total 4 million in a short time. The government has also improved the calculation index of civil servant salaries through which many benefit. In addition, almost a million small businesses received tax exemption.
Two and a half million people were happy to have their enforcement debts of around TL 2,500 ($133) paid by the state. These are mostly utility invoices for low-income citizens. Then the housing campaign kicked off, and approximately 8 million low-income citizens applied for it, 1.5 million of whom will benefit from the affordable housing campaign. There is a very handsome amount of government contribution to the project.
The Turkish navy has successfully conducted sea tests of the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu during the same period when voters' favor turned in favor of the AK Party. Turkish people are always aware of how closely the progress in the defense industry is related to its independence. The project, in which the ship is designed and produced by Turkish engineers in Turkish shipyards, is very striking and a source of national pride.
The TCG Anadolu is a landing helicopter dock (LHD)-type vessel modeled on Spain's LHD Juan Carlos.
Each of the above-listed individual demands concerns a minimum of a million people. Another example of this, in the last few days, is related a significant number of employees in subcontracting companies in the public sector. The workers who completed three working years received the privilege to transfer to the payroll of government companies. Some 300,000 employees from this category, whose total number is also approaching 1 million, will be civil servants.
The second minimum wage increase of the year announced last week was also satisfactory. Civil servants and pensioners have also received a handsome 30% income appraisal. Therefore, all low-income citizens have been under state protection against harsh economic conditions arising mainly from global factors.
Voter demands have changed from essential investments, including roads, water, electricity, natural gas and hospitals, to more individual concerns which are a promising fact for the development of a country. Today, in Türkiye, which has met its infrastructure development targets, voters no longer turn to demands such as utility infrastructure but to the need for self-improvement or self-fulfillment.
From now on, the government will deal with more and be supportive of the low-income, fixed-salary segments and people in need of social assistance. The concept of social state should also be associated with the AK Party.
Türkiye's next important agenda will probably include education reform, further improvement of health services and a framework on how the welfare state supports social welfare. The questions of the country soon will be how to encourage science and technology, research and development studies, and digital transformation and to make all these sustainable. When the dust settles, the whole of humanity will witness that Türkiye is perhaps an exemplification of a social state in the world.
