Opposition MP waves abacus to Turkish finance minister to protest inflation

A deputy from Turkey's main opposition CHP protested Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek during the parliamentary meeting on the 2025 budget. Holding an abacus, CHP deputy Tahsin Ocaklı said the ministry needed it to calculate inflation more accurately than the state statistical agency, TÜİK.

Friday November 15 2024 05:01 pm

CHP MP Ocaklı holds an abacus in protest as Finance Ministry enters the budgetary commission meeting.

Duvar English

The parliamentary review of Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Ministry’s budget began in the Parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission.

At the start of the meeting, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Tahsin Ocaklı greeted Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek with an abacus, saying, “Apparently, the state statistical institute TÜİK doesn’t know how to calculate. Let’s give them an abacus to teach them.”

CHP deputy Veli Ağbaba also criticized Şimşek, saying, “We’re first in Europe in food inflation, congratulations. Thanks to you, we are first in many areas—first in interest rates, first in inflation. Before transitioning to rational economics, inflation was 38 percent, now it’s 48 percent. Congratulations.”

In his presentation of the ministry’s budget, Şimşek said the disinflation process, which began in June, was ongoing. He noted that annual inflation dropped by 26.9 percentage points over the past five months to 48.6 percent.

Şimşek stated that reducing inflationary rigidity would take time, adding, “In October, inflation expectations for the next 12 months reached their lowest level in two and a half years, indicating positive progress.”

Şimşek rejected claims that Turkey had a high tax burden, saying the country ranked third-lowest among 38 OECD countries in tax burden.

The minister said they expected relative economic recovery in the second half of the year. He emphasized the importance of maintaining budget discipline to support disinflation and reduce the current account deficit.

During the meeting, deputy Ağbaba played a video in which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized Şimşek in the past. In the video, Erdoğan pointed to Şimşek and said, “There’s Mehmet Şimşek. Weren’t these people honest? They even tried to defraud Halkbank.”

The screening of the video sparked objections from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members in the room. In response, Ağbaba said, “Don’t tell me anything. If your leader hears you criticizing him, he’ll destroy you.”

The commission chairman said showing videos was not in line with parliamentary procedure.

Ağbaba replied, “You cannot restrict a deputy’s freedom of expression. We won’t accept it.”