Özel promises debt relief, price guarantees for farmers

RİZE

Main opposition New Party leader Özgür Özel has pledged sweeping debt relief for farmers and guaranteed purchase prices for tea and hazelnuts if his party comes to power, pitching a new economic agenda during his tour in the Black Sea region.

“We will give everyone a second chance, a second spring,” Özel told supporters in Rize on Aug. 22, promising what he described as a new period in which people would be able to recover financially.

He said his government would erase, once and for all, the interest on farmers’ outstanding bank and institutional loans across Türkiye, while restructuring the principal into three to five installments.

The New Party leader also pledged to “replace government-backed guarantees for major infrastructure projects with purchase and price guarantees for agricultural products,” particularly tea and hazelnuts.

“Under the new period of the New Party, there will be purchase guarantees for both tea and hazelnuts, and not a single sale will be made below the announced price,” Özel said.

He said buyers who purchase tea or hazelnuts below the officially announced price would face penalties, comparing the policy with enforcement against businesses that employ workers below the minimum wage.

Özel criticized the government over what he described as a gap between announced agricultural prices and the prices actually paid to producers.

Turning to retirees, he said the lowest pension would initially be raised to the level of the minimum wage, which currently stands at 28,075 Turkish Liras.

His speech came as New Party seeks to expand its organization and membership ahead of its planned political activities, with Özel telling supporters that all party members would be entitled to vote in the selection of local and national party leaders.

On July 24, Özel resigned from his post as Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader, breaking away with 90 fellow lawmakers to establish the New Party. His departure came two months after an Ankara court annulled the CHP’s 2023 leadership election over alleged irregularities, removing Özel as chair and reinstating former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.