Podemos raises a food check of 200 euros for more than 7 million families

Negotiations begin in the coalition government for the extension of the anti-inflation measures that expire on December 31.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
08 December 2022 Thursday 06:39
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Podemos raises a food check of 200 euros for more than 7 million families

Negotiations begin in the coalition government for the extension of the anti-inflation measures that expire on December 31. The next week is coming intense. There will be some that remain, others that are modified and a third pack of new ones. President Pedro Sánchez announced on Tuesday that it will be an "ambitious" group. One of the novelties is raised by Podemos, with a food check for the most needy families.

The check proposed by the party led by Ione Belarra in the negotiation would be between 200 and 300 euros and would be collected by between 7 and 8 million families, according to Pablo Iglesias on Radio Euskadi. It remains to define the exact amount and periodicity of the same. And it is also necessary to negotiate it with the socialist part of the Government. It would work in a similar way to the 90-euro heating check approved last year or the 200-euro aid for incomes of less than 14,000 euros approved this 2022, indicate sources close to the negotiations. The Ministry of Finance refers to the internal conversations in the Executive.

Iglesias has also pointed out that Podemos is bringing to the negotiating table an extraordinary tax on large distribution chains, a rate that Portugal has just approved. Yolanda Díaz, leader of the Unidas Podemos negotiating commission, made up of her chief of staff, Josep Vendrell, by the Secretary of State for Social Rights, Nacho Álvarez, and by the economist and adviser to the Ministry of Labor, Manuel Lago, assured this tomorrow from Brussels that "without a doubt there is a transfer of income to the corporate profits of the large distributors". “It is more than questionable that with extraordinary benefits they do not take any action in this regard. This crisis has to be paid for with the contribution of those who have the most”, added the second vice president and Minister of Labor.

UP also demands that its PSOE partners act on housing. Specifically, on mortgages, with a freeze on payments during 2023, and on rentals, with an automatic extension of contracts that have to be renewed for an additional year under the same conditions. In other words, for the minority partners of the Government, the agreement reached by Vice President Nadia Calviño with the financial entities or the 2% ceiling on rent increases is not enough, and they propose to go further.

The anti-inflation package that the Council of Ministers has to approve before December 31 will also contemplate an extension of measures already in force. For example, the prolongation of VAT reductions on electricity and gas and the suppression of the electricity generation tax. The Government has already announced that it will extend the free subscriptions for Cercanías, Rodalies and Media Distancia and it remains to be seen how the discount for other public transport is.

Regarding the fuel reduction, the debate is open. The Ministry of Finance is studying how to focus the aid of 20 cents per liter on the most vulnerable and professionals, as is claimed, for example, by the transport sector. But it is not easy because if the beneficiaries are reduced the inflation curve could not be lowered, they admit in the department directed by María Jesús Montero.

It must be remembered that different international organizations, from Brussels to the IMF through the OECD, have demanded that aid to fight inflation be focused on the most vulnerable. Airef identified, for its part, that the beneficiaries of a large part of this aid were medium and high incomes and not those who most needed it.