A proposal to extend the ‘anti-crisis shield’, which includes a 33% tax on the extraordinary profits of large distributors and supermarkets, will be submitted by left-wing coalition member Unidas-Podemos to its socialist partner later this week.
The measure is expected to have a “deterrent effect” on price rises, helping contain inflation (6.8 % in November), EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported Monday.
Podemos’s spokesman Pablo Fernández pointed out that this new package of mitigating measures is extremely necessary right now because, in many cases, price hikes are not directly related to costs, but “illegitimately” they are linked to “big (supermarket) chains,” he stressed at a press conference on Monday.
Fernández used Spanish supermarket giant Mercadona as an example, saying this chain has raised the prices of its products the most (within the Spanish market) and at the same time has forecast profits of around € 700 million for 2023.
“A government that cares for the people cannot allow that while there are people who find it very difficult to access basic products, the rich get richer and richer at the expense of all of us,” he lamented.
He recalled that a similar extra tax on large supermarket chains works well in Portugal.
The Unidas-Podemos (Gue-NGL) proposal comes just a couple of days after Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), on Saturday announced the launch by the progressive Executive of a new social aid package to curb food prices.
In addition to this extraordinary tax, Unidas-Podemos will propose to the PSOE an extra aid of between €200 and €500, depending on income, for the most vulnerable families, which would reach eight million households.
The aim of this new aid is to help alleviate “the financial burden of the shopping basket”, the Unidas-Podemos MEP pointed out.
In May 2023, Spain will hold municipal elections, considered the first litmus test for Sanchez’s governing coalition with Unidas-Podemos.
After that, the parties will have to face the general election set for December next year.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Source: euractiv.com
