CHP Chair: Government Should Pay Salaries of Citizens Staying Home

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The government should use the unemployment fund to aid people who lost their jobs and who had to shut down their workplaces during the pandemic, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has suggested.

Criticizing the government-backed "stay home" campaign, Kılıçdaroğlu said at a program on Fox TV that authorities should have kept people at home, rather than advising them to stay home.

"Many people are left unemployed. The number of workplaces closed only by the presidential decree is 144,690. Salaries of our citizens who are told to 'stay home' should be paid from the unemployment fund for at least three months," he said.

He noted that there are currently 130 billion lira (~19.3 billion US dollars) in the unemployment fund and suggested that this money should be used for people who lost their jobs and who had to close their workplaces.

"People have to go out. They have to bring home the bread. They should have been told, 'Stay home, we will take care of it'," he added.

While the CHP chair has been advocating a curfew to curb the spread of the coronavirus, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been rather advising a "voluntary quarantine," saying that "production must continue."

The government imposed a curfew for people over 65 years of age and restricted intercity travels, as well as quarantining dozens of neighborhoods and villages in various parts of the country.

Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized the donation campaign started by the President, saying that, "Mr. Erdoğan says it's time for sacrifice. Right, but who will make a sacrifice? Will the citizens whose coffee shops are closed, who cannot sell bagels, whose bakery shops are closed, whose barbershops are closed make a sacrifice? We want justice. The poor are not in a situation to make a sacrifice." (DB/VK)