President Erdoğan visited the province of Kütahya on Wednesday for an election rally, urging supporters to vote for the AK Party against the 'dirty alliances' of the opposition and those aligned with 'terrorist groups'
The next stopover of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the campaign trail for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for the March 31 municipal elections was the western city of Kütahya. Addressing around 35,000 people, Erdoğan reiterated the AK Party's commitment to public services and criticized the opposition parties pursuing alliances against his party.
Erdoğan heaped praise on voters of the AK Party in the city where the party and its allies garnered 68% of the vote, while the president himself received 70% of voter support in last year's legislative and presidential elections.
"I now expect your support for local elections. We should not allow those threatening the security and stability of our country," Erdoğan said in his address to the crowd.
"In every election, this nation always taught a lesson to those insulting its history, to those garnering support of the terrorist group," he said.
The president and AK Party officials have long been critical of their main rival, the Republican People's Party (CHP), for its pursuit of support from the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
"You see how they are engaged in dirty alliances in some cities. In some places, they withdraw candidates, they run schemes (to hide the alliance), but our nation sees what they are up to," he said.
The president also spoke about rumors of a pension rise, pointing out the high number of pensioners in Kütahya. He said the government was committed to improving the living conditions of pensioners while criticizing the reports that miscalculate a potential raise in pensions.
"Some people try to provoke the pensioners. We have 16 million pensioners and paying them a one-time TL 10,000 ($320) means allocating a source of TL 1.9 trillion," he said, adding that it was a high cost for Türkiye.
"We are aware of the widened gap between pensions (of people with different social security programs), but we have to take meticulous steps as the public would hold us accountable for what we will do," he said.
The president also underlined the high cost that the February 2023 earthquakes in the country's south inflicted upon the economy.
"Despite this, we are implementing a strong economic program to maintain economic balance," he added.