Türkiye before local elections: Heading into the voting booth with fears of inflation

Life in Turkey has become rapidly more expensive due to enormous inflation. This is depressing the mood ahead of the local elections on Sunday – in the cities, but also in the countryside. Whether rent or income – the worries are great.

There is actually always a traffic jam in Antalya, not just during the election campaign. The streets of the metropolis of two million people on the Turkish Riviera are constantly overcrowded, and it’s hard to move, especially at rush hour.

Carpet dealer Veli thinks the city isn’t doing enough to combat the chaos; in any case, he hasn’t noticed any road construction work under the current mayor in the past five years. He doesn’t even want to imagine what this will mean for the city in the long term, because Antalya is growing and is getting more and more immigrants.

No wonder that transport is one of the central election campaign issues. The incumbent mayor Muhittin Böcek from the CHP and his challenger Hakan Tütüncü from the AKP both advertise the number of transport projects they want to implement.

Rents are rising and rising

However, saleswoman Tugba is not really enthusiastic – none of the candidates are an option for her, she says, because they only pursue their own interests, which is why she tends not to vote.

Tugba is 35 and has just returned to her hometown after her divorce, in the middle of a housing crisis that is having a significant impact on her. The rent is constantly rising and has been increased twice within a year, from 1,700 to 4,000 lira and six months later again to 9,000 lira.

That’s more than 250 euros, an enormous price for Turkish standards. Although the city and its residents benefit from the tourism business, many complain about the prices. They also rose so sharply because many Russians and Ukrainians moved here after the Russian attack on Ukraine.

The boom and its consequences

Expensive rents and traffic – these are typical big city problems in Turkey. Because the booming holiday region attracts many workers and the city is growing rapidly, they are particularly pronounced in Antalya.

Carpet dealer Veli has been running his business in the old town for more than 30 years. The alley made of light sandstone smells like sewage. That’s another problem that needs to be solved because it smells even more, especially in summer when temperatures reach 45 degrees, and he’s ashamed of that. But the mayor only came by once during this legislative period, far too rarely, says Veli. Even if he is actually a CHP voter, he will probably try the AKP candidate in this election.

Is growing vegetables still worth it?

Almost 100 kilometers away, the world looks completely different. Instead of traffic chaos, you can find greenhouses in Kumluca as far as the eye can see, with the smell of orange blossoms. The region around the small town lives from agriculture, but it’s pretty poor.

Nursel, Hamide and their neighbors are farmers. Over tea during their lunch break they are annoyed about the prices of their vegetables. Nursel shows her greenhouse where eggplants grow, but they can only sell them for 30 lira a kilo, despite the effort involved in growing and harvesting them. It’s an amount for which she can’t get anything in the supermarket.

Thirty lira is the equivalent of about one euro. Nursel’s neighbor Hamide, who also grows vegetables, says she no longer knows how she will pay for everything. Because the middlemen in the market hall were still paying the prices from last year. Everything is becoming more expensive – diesel, fertilizer, pesticides.

Concern for the next generation

In addition to the low yields for farmers, there is inflation: their children do not see a future in agriculture, says Nursel. One son is unemployed, the second works for the minimum wage on other farms.

But these, say Nursel, Hamide and the others, are problems that the government in Ankara should take care of, not their mayor in Kumluca. If women have their way, problems that are easier to solve are on the agenda. And he’s not doing it so badly, everyone emphasizes.

The city administration collects plant residues, processes them into fertilizer and distributes it to the farmers. In the past, they would simply throw away the leftovers and then burn them. Processing, on the other hand, also protects the area from air and environmental pollution.

Life will unaffordable

In the end, however, the issue of inflation hovers over the election campaign everywhere, in the cities and also in the countryside. Regardless of whether it is high fertilizer prices or rising rents: Turks can afford their own land less and less.

However, nothing is likely to change in Turkey’s ongoing economic misery after these elections.