“The population tells us: we can’t take it anymore, life is becoming untenable, we have to act. Our solution: get the money where it is, namely in the multinationals that are getting richer, the energy producers which are making record profits. But the main measure must also be to freeze the prices of basic necessities, fuel, energy and basic foodstuffs, that is the solution”. Targeted rice, pasta, semolina, bread, flour.
The PTB, castigating the government’s lack of response to soaring prices, thus resolutely pleads for “a simple measure” – to have ? – namely the abolition of all excise duties on fuels, currently around 60 cents per liter of petrol or diesel, to bring prices at the pump down to a maximum of 1.40 euros per litre, and we have tabled a proposal sense. Total had made a record profit of 14 billion euros in 2021, they have just announced a new record of 5 billion only for the first three months of 2022. Ditto for Shell, BP, Exxon. That can not continue. Let’s get the money there – as well as from the additional state revenues – to finance this blockage”.
The PTB also defends the extension “timeless” beyond the summer months of the federal measure to lower the VAT from 21 to 6% on gas and electricity, scheduled until the end of June – but Prime Minister Alexander De Croo himself already opening the leads to an extension if prices remain high until the end of the year.
The party also maintains its demand for a revision of the 1996 competitiveness law which, according to it, prevents any real increase in wages for the next few years, beyond the 0.4% currently planned for 2021-2022.
At last, Raoul Hedebouw is delighted to hear other parties join the PTB in its plea for a wealth tax and a tax on the excess profits of multinationals. “Paul Magnette, Conner Rousseau, Kristof Calvo, Joachim Coens: suddenly they all wake up. They feel our warm breath in their neck. So much the better. managed to do for 20 years, which is to pull the political speeches once more to the left. But we are going to have to continue to put the pressure because it is only regarding the speeches for the moment “, warns the president of the PTB.