Yolanda Díaz advances that the Government is going to start a negotiation to act urgently on the price of food. The second vice-president and Minister of Labor stated this Wednesday that these conversations between the coalition partners seek to "act in the shopping cart" with the aim of preventing a "mission impossible" for a family from filling their fridge.
Díaz has pointed out that a negotiating commission will be set up with the PSOE within the framework of the extension of the anti-inflation decree that has to be approved by the council of ministers before the end of the year. That delegation, on behalf of Unidas Podemos, will be made up of the second vice president herself, by 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 Labour, Manuel Lake. The same ones who negotiated the Budgets. At the moment, no meeting has been held between the partners, they indicate.
The PSOE admits a previous work led by the ministries of Economy and Finance to approve the decree in a next council of ministers. There is a package of measures "under study". President Pedro Sánchez pointed out yesterday in Congress that action will be taken on the price of food, although Nadia Calviño herself already pointed out in September that establishing price ceilings for some products was not being contemplated.
"We have huge problems and we have to act on the shopping cart," Diaz said. He has given the example of a family that earns 1,000 euros a month, for which it is "mission impossible" to assume a 15.4% increase in the price of food. Stopping this increase in food is "essential" for her.
Yolanda Díaz has added that the purple part of the coalition does not share the VAT reduction on certain staple foods, a bet of the large distribution chains, because, as she has stated, it is not an "efficient" measure. She has recalled that some products already support reduced VAT.
The focus has been placed by Díaz on the margin of the companies. "The Bank of Spain says that there is a very direct transfer of the increase in prices to the benefits of distribution," he assured. He has asked for "action" on "companies that are benefiting from the crisis" and has stressed that "lowering taxes is not worth it and does not help."
Yolanda Díaz has also fallen short of the recent agreement on mortgages reached by the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, with the banks. In this sense, she has also claimed to include in the next anti-inflation decree a "retroactive quota freeze since July". Because, as she has remarked, "it is an impossible mission for many families to assume the increase in the Euribor".
