Unions take to the streets: "It's time to act quickly"
A moment of the demonstration. /
New day of mobilizations, with almost sixty protests called to demand measures from the Government against the rise in prices
New day of mobilizations in the country, although in this case it was the consumers who took to the streets of the main Spanish cities to express their rejection of the increase in the cost of the shopping basket and energy products and demand a control of prices and employment protection. They did it one day before the European Council meets to agree on the measures to alleviate this wave of inflation called by the two majority unions in Spain, UGT and CC OO; the self-employed organizations UPTA and Uatae, and associations such as Facua and the State Confederation of Neighborhood Associations (CEAV).
"It's time to act quickly." This was claimed in the manifesto they read, in which they denounced the "deterioration of the living conditions of families, workers and consumers" derived from inflation that has climbed to 7.6%, the highest level for 36 years , as a result of the rise in energy prices and its contagion to the rest of the shopping basket.
"We can not wait. They are already late”, warned the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, who pointed out that “this unbearable situation does not come from now”, since “we have been with the growth of prices for a long time, especially electricity”.
For this reason, he urged Brussels to take the "necessary measures" and to allow states to regulate prices. "If the EU can regulate it for the entire continent, better, but if it cannot regulate it, what it cannot do is have the countries gripped with these prices," he specified during the march held in Madrid, which was attended by between 4,000 and 5,000 people, according to the organizers.
Along these same lines, the general secretary of the CCOO, Unai Sordo, warned that "the only possibility" for Spain to "tame" inflation is to "drastically" reduce energy and electricity costs. In his opinion, the current situation of escalating prices requires having "high vision" and deploying a package of "maximum intensity" economic measures.
Against a tax cut
The union leader also recognized that the Government should have acted earlier to help the economic sectors most impacted by the rise in prices, but pointed out that, "beyond time management", what is "absolutely a priority" is resolve the meeting of the European Council that starts this Thursday with measures that enable a drastic reduction in energy and electricity costs.
«Spain is at stake tomorrow in the European Council as much as we were at stake when the European funds were launched. We need that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow Spain, together with other countries, can carry out a package of measures that make it possible to decouple the price of gas from electricity », he stressed.
Both from the CC OO and from the UGT they reiterated that the solution is not a tax cut, as some parties and sectors are asking for, since "the market eats that drop", according to Álvarez.
"A generalized tax cut would be a mistake, a trap that would put Spain in a very delicate fiscal situation in a couple of years," defended Sordo, who pointed out that "the time sequence has to be to win the European battle, drastically lower energy prices and support measures for the most vulnerable sectors and families hardest hit by the current situation.
