Madrid, (EFE).- The agreement reached in France for supermarkets to offer a shopping basket with basic foods at fixed prices has increased the pressure for the hypermarkets with the largest presence in Spain to do the same.
“We take it for granted that those multinational groups that have a presence in Spain will extend any commercial policy that may benefit French citizens to Spanish citizens,” said the Vice President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, on Tuesday.
Specifically, the French Government has agreed with the distribution chains Carrefour, Intermarché, Système U, Auchan, Casino, Cora, Lidl and Aldi.
All of them will offer a shopping basket that can be freely configured by each one and that will include basic foods at the lowest possible price -reducing the profit margin of the chains-, a measure with which the Government hopes to advance in the fight against inflation, since food became more expensive in France by 14.5% in February.
In the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Calviño expressed his confidence that the chains that have accepted this agreement in France will do the same in Spain.
His request would affect French groups with a presence in Spain such as Carrefour – which has already announced a basket of 200 basic products at capped prices in France – or Alcampo (Auchan), but also hypermarkets in other countries such as Lidl or Aldi.
For the spokesperson for Más País Verdes Equo, Íñigo Errejón, “the first step in transparency” involves publishing the profit margins of the large distribution companies, which is why they have registered a written question to the Government in which they they ask.
In this regard, Calviño has defended that the Government has reinforced the food price observatories to “make a more precise follow-up” of the measures adopted, that “they have a path” and that “they are already having an impact”, as can be seen on products to which VAT has been lowered.
The Basque chain Erosky, an example
In this regard, the Eroski vacuum group recalled this Tuesday that, since last year, it has been implementing saving measures so as not to transfer the entire increase in costs to consumers.
Eroski sources have indicated to EFE that, if what was decided in France is that the distribution companies make an effort to reduce the profit margin for this purpose, in the Basque group this has already been done. Specifically, 11% in the first half of 2022.
The spokesman for the Basque Government, Bingen Zupiria, has considered that an agreement like the French one does not have to harm small local businesses or Spanish producers.
We can ask the PSOE to stop the shopping cart
After learning about the French initiative, deputies from Unidas Podemos and other formations have demanded that the PSOE also promote a cap on the prices of basic products in the shopping cart.
“If in France with a right-wing government it can be done, in Spain with a progressive government it must be done”, summed up the president of Unidas Podemos and deputy of En Comú Podem, Jaume Asens, at a press conference in Congress.
Later, the Socialist spokesman Patxi López indicated that he is “convinced that the Government will be studying it”, but then he recalled that in France it was already done in Sarkozy’s time and “it did not go very well”.
“What may seem like a good idea can be devastating for small businesses,” warned the socialist parliamentary spokesman, who would like distributors to take the initiative “voluntarily.”
Javier Sánchez Serna, co-spokesperson for Podemos, recalled that the Retail Trade Regulation Law allows exceptions to free pricing and has urged the Government to “force” large supermarkets “with the BOE in hand” so that they do not continue “lining themselves at the expense of the pocket of the families.”
“When an agreement with a part of the economic powers is not possible, a democratic government has the BOE at its disposal,” Sánchez Serna insisted.
The BNG is also in agreement with the ceiling, whose deputy Néstor Rego, however, prefers that the choice of which should be the basic products in the basket be made by the public administration, and not by the large distributors as in France, for “ do not entrust the fox with the care of the chicken coop”.
The deputy of the CUP, Mireia Vehí, thinks that in France it has been achieved due to its “potential of the union movement”, while in Spain “the two big unions have not opened their mouths”.
The Compromís deputy, Joan Baldoví, believes that the cap is also allowed by the Food Chain Law and supports it because inflation is due in large part to the excessive profits of large supermarkets.
On the other hand, the national spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Patricia Guasp, has said that she is in favor of tax reductions for food products and other measures against inflation, but against “forcing prices to be capped, because that would damage the entire production chain ”.