Politics Collective
As we enter the final month of 2025 there is still no space in Parliament for the real issues facing the public. While the deepening economic crisis and rising cost of living top society’s burning problems the government imposes its own agenda in parliamentary arrangements. In the ongoing budget marathon the ever-growing Palace budget will be discussed today. With the hunger line at 28,000 TL and the poverty line at 92,000 TL the 2026 budget will deepen poverty further. The Presidency, which has become a symbol of waste, submitted a budget proposal of 21 billion 286 million lira for next year. This means the Palace’s daily spending will reach around 58 million TL. Meanwhile the share allocated to workers continues to fall while the share channelled to capital rises. While funds for education, health and agriculture are cut the taps are opened for companies.
“Solution” debates and the 11th Judicial Package will also be on Parliament’s agenda. The proposal, which includes a covid regulation covering offences committed before 31 July 2023 and concerns 50,000 to 55,000 convicts in the first stage, foresees broadening the scope of the arrangement that allows convicts in closed prisons to be transferred earlier to open prisons or probation.
WORKERS WILL NOT BE INCLUDED
Meanwhile the minimum wage process is beginning. The Minimum Wage Determination Commission is expected to meet in the first week of December to start work on determining the minimum wage for 2026. But this year worker representatives will not be at the table. The commission is expected to hold four meetings. One of the main criticisms long voiced by unions and confederations is that the current structure of the commission does not represent workers adequately. The worker side’s position is that decisions should be taken not by majority vote but by consensus. The TÜRK-İŞ Executive Board had announced that unless there is a change in the structure of the commission it will not take part as a Confederation in the commission that will meet to determine the minimum wage for 2026.
This week the “National Solidarity Brotherhood and Democracy Commission” will meet in the Grand National Assembly. The delegation that went to İmralı to meet PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is expected to give information on the meeting. The debates on the 2026 budget proposal, which have been ongoing for about a month in the Planning and Budget Commission, will be concluded. The 11th Judicial Package, which will pave the way for the release of 55,000 people in the first stage, will be discussed in the Justice Commission.
THE COMMISSION WILL MEET
The National Solidarity Brotherhood and Democracy Commission will meet on Thursday 4 December. At the meeting AKP Deputy Chairperson Hüseyin Yayman, DEM Party Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairperson Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and MHP Deputy Chairperson Feti Yıldız, who went to İmralı on Monday 24 November to meet PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, are expected to give information on the meeting. Meanwhile in the commission’s meeting held on Friday 21 November reports on the views and suggestions requested by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş from the parties on the commission to prepare the final report will be submitted to the Parliament Speaker’s Office after the delegation’s presentation.
The debates in the Planning and Budget Commission on the 2026 Central Government Budget Bill and the 2024 Central Government Final Account Bill, submitted to Parliament on 23 October and whose debates started in the commission on 30 October, are being concluded this week. In the Planning and Budget Commission the Presidency’s budget will be discussed on Monday 1 December.
Debates on the 2026 budget bill will begin in the General Assembly on Monday 8 December 2025 and will continue without interruption including weekends and will be completed on 21 December.
JUDICIAL PACKAGE IN THE COMMISSION
The bill amending the Turkish Penal Code and Some Laws, submitted to Parliament by the AKP last Friday and called the 11th Judicial Package, will be debated in the Justice Commission on Wednesday 3 December. The package includes arrangements such as a partial amnesty, sentence increases for organised crime and granting prosecutors the authority to seize without a court decision.
Debates will continue in the General Assembly on the Bill Amending the Tax Laws, Some Laws and Decree-Law No. 631, whose first six articles were adopted last week. During the debate a proposal will be submitted to limit the increases applied to the base values used in determining property taxes.
According to the bill the exemption applied to residential rental income is abolished in the amendment made to the Income Tax Law. The exemption amount had been 47,000 TL for 2025. Except for pensioners all landlords will pay income tax regardless of how much rental income they receive. To cover the effects of the Maraş earthquake and the additional financing needs of 2025 an additional 595 billion Turkish lira will be added to the net borrowing amount set by the Budget Law.
The bill also foresees reducing the 4 percent premium support given to employers from the Treasury to 2 percent, maintaining the 5 percent support in the manufacturing sector, setting the fees charged to students in foundation higher education institutions according to principles determined by the Higher Education Council based on the average of the annual producer price index and annual consumer price index increases in June of the current year, raising the upper limit of earnings subject to premiums from 7.5 times the minimum wage to 9 times and increasing the employer’s share of the retirement premium rate by 1 point.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Halkın talepleri gündemde yok, published in BirGün newspaper on December 1, 2025.
