AKP, CHP show solidarity over restoring May 1 holiday

After ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Corum Deputy Agah Kafkas introduced a proposal to Parliament this week to celebrate May 1 as Unity and Solidarity Day, it got open backing from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Kafkas said that May 1 is an important day for the world's labor movement, adding that he hoped the proposal would proceed through commission hearings to the full Parliament. From 1935 to 1980, Turkish workers celebrated May 1 as an official holiday under the title Spring and Flower Festival. But the holiday was eliminated in the wake of the 1980 coup. In the years since, many proposals to restore the holiday were introduced by left-wing or social democratic parties, but none succeeded.