What do you think about the “Vision Document” announced by CHP?

What do you think about the “Vision Document” announced by CHP?

Turkiye Raporu

January 2023

What do you think about the “Vision Document” announced by CHP?

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu changed the agenda on 30 November 2022 with a 32-second video he posted on Twitter in the afternoon with the title “3 December”. In the video, Kılıçdaroğlu promised that Turkiye would compete with the world in all areas of life, including industry, technology, education, human, women’s and animal rights. With the release of the video, many people started to wait for Kılıçdaroğlu to announce his candidacy for the presidency.

CHP’s Vision Document, which is named as “A Call for the Second Century”, especially focuses on the current economic crisis. In addition to Jeremy Rifkin, who was recently announced by CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as his chief advisor, prominent names such as Professor Refet Gürkaynak, head of the Department of Economics at Bilkent University, Professor Daron Acemoğlu, Professor of Economics who has been lecturing at MIT for 29 years, and Professor Hakan Kara, former chief economist of the Central Bank of Turkiye (CBRT), who also gives lectures at Bilkent, presented their prescriptions for getting out of the crisis at the 4-hour “A Call for the Second Century Meeting”.

In addition to these names, CHP Poverty Solidarity Office Coordinator Hacer Foggo also took the floor and CHP Spokesperson Faik Öztrak said, “We will put an end to extravagance and waste.” The expected announcement about the presidential candidacy was not made in the meeting. CHP’s “Call to the Second Century” is nothing new. A document named “Declaration of the Call to the Second Century” was unanimously accepted by 1381 delegates at the 37th Ordinary Congress of the Republican People’s Party held between 25-26 July 2020. The declaration in question consists of 13 articles addressing 5 main issues.

While the declaration starts with the transition to a strengthened parliamentary system, issues such as the Kurdish problem, gender equality and merit are addressed. It is emphasised that the Election Law and the Public Procurement Law will be amended accordingly. It is also mentioned that a Law on Political Ethics will be enacted, new institutions such as the National Tax Council, the Final Accounts Commission in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Family Support Insurance Institution, the Middle East Peace and Cooperation Organisation will be established and the balance between the “Centre-Local” will be ensured.

We asked the public about the “Call to the Second Century” Vision Document announced by CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. According to the results, between 50 percent and half of the society stated that they did not know/follow the “Vision Document” in question. One out of every five respondents, on the other hand, thinks that CHP has prepared very well and done a good job.

One out of every two respondents did not follow the CHP’s Vision Document announced at the ‘Call for the Second Century’ meeting. The rate of respondents who did not follow/do not know the CHP’s Vision Document is 50%. One out of every five respondents thinks that CHP has prepared very well and has done a good job. 30% have negative views on the CHP’s Vision Document. Nearly one in five respondents (19%) think that CHP has prepared a politically incoherent document, while 11% think that the document does not respond to Turkiye’s needs. The reason behind this view may be that Jeremy Rifkin, Kılıçdaroğlu’s advisor, emphasized the climate crisis in his speech at the Call for a New Century meeting. This is because those who followed the meeting said that the real problem of the country was the economic crisis and the lack of livelihood, and criticized this emphasis on the climate crisis on social media.

One out of every two respondents did not follow the CHP’s Vision Document announced at the ‘Call for the Second Century’ meeting.

The rate of respondents who did not follow/do not know the CHP’s Vision Document is 50%.

One out of every five respondents thinks that CHP has prepared very well and has done a good job.

30% have negative views on the CHP’s Vision Document.

Nearly one in five respondents (19%) think that CHP has prepared a politically incoherent document, while 11% think that the document does not respond to Turkiye’s needs. The reason behind this view may be that Jeremy Rifkin, Kılıçdaroğlu’s advisor, emphasized the climate crisis in his speech at the Call for a New Century meeting. This is because those who followed the meeting said that the real problem of the country was the economic crisis and the lack of livelihood, and criticized this emphasis on the climate crisis on social media.

In all gender and education groups, the respondents stated that they did not know/follow the Vision Document were the most except 65+ respondents.

Among female respondents, the rate of those who do not follow CHP’s Call for a New Century meeting reaches 57%. Among male respondents, this rate is 41%.

On the other hand, the rate of male respondents who think that CHP has prepared a politically incoherent document is 23%, while the rate of those who think that CHP has prepared a good document is 23%.

The age group with the highest rate of those who did not follow the CHP’s Vision Document is the 18-24 age group with 68%.

The rate of those who followed the CHP’s Vision Document increases with increasing age. 68% of respondents aged 18-24 and 57% of respondents aged 25-34 did not follow the meeting. According to the results, CHP failed to reach young voters. Is this because of the distance young people keep from politics or because CHP’s initiative was not covered in the media sufficiently? Certainly, it is possible to interpret the results in both ways.