The Government proposes direct aid to curb the strike of carriers
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The National Committee for Road Transport asks the Executive to raise diesel rebates to 1,000 million
The Government wants to close this Thursday the agreement with the carriers to mitigate the impact of the rise in fuels in the exercise of their activity. The idea is that in the meeting that is being held this morning with the National Committee for Road Transport, the Executive puts on the table details on the direct aid that will be proposed to lower the price of fuel.
The negotiations, headed by the Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, together with the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, and the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, will be based on detailing how the initial proposal of 500 million euros will be distributed for subsidize professional diesel, a figure that the sector has requested to increase to 1,000 million, according to Europa Press.
The idea is to detail how they will be distributed and establish an aid program similar to the one developed in France, where the Macron government has already approved a cut of 15 cents per liter in fuel for its truckers that will come into force from next April 1 .
The Prime Minister himself, Pedro Sánchez, assured yesterday that "we will not get up" from the table until an agreement is reached. The problem is that this agreement may not be enough to prevent the blockade from continuing, which in recent days has unleashed serious supply problems, given the slowdown in production in many industries, especially the food industry.
And it is that this Thursday's meeting will not count on the presence of the strikers led by the Platform for the Defense of the Transport Sector, who this Thursday face their tenth day of strikes.
Its highest representative, Manuel Hernández, recalled this morning that the strikes will not be called off until they sit down at the negotiating table with the Executive, despite the fact that many of their demands are the same as those defended by the National Transport Committee by Road, whom the Government considers a legitimate interlocutor to resolve the conflict.
The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, insisted on Thursday morning that "those are the rules of the game and they must be respected." Regarding the action of some pickets in this conflict, Montero has said that he is aware that there are carriers who feel "coerced" when it comes to taking out their truck and has assured that, "from the first day" of the strike, the Ministry of the Interior deployed more than 24,000 agents.
It was at that time that Raquel Sánchez criticized the violence used by the pickets, whom she accused of belonging to far-right groups. A position from which this Thursday the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has preferred to move away, assuring that the unemployed carriers are “the most vulnerable” within the transport chain.
Division
"I hope that with today's agreement what was agreed upon is respected and violent formulas are not resorted to," Montero insisted before the meeting. However, the division within the sector is total. And there are also differences between the transport of goods and that of passengers, which intends that the discounts offered are not only limited to diesel, but also extend to gas and electricity. The taxi, in particular, bets on the collection of the check per vehicle.
After the meetings in recent days with electricity and oil companies, Montero also insisted that they have requested an additional effort to deal with the crisis. At this point, the intention is that they do their part for that diesel bonus in the case of oil companies, especially in professional use, to lower the final price of fuel.
With regard to electricity companies, the Executive again points to the so-called benefits that fell from the sky so that electricity prices are "real" and "are not distorted" by the price of gas within the 'pool'.
