The Spanish government has responded to the complaints of many citizens and opposition parties about skyrocketed inflation with a promise:
Energy prices in Spain, specifically electricity, gas and gasoline, which have triggered the spending of tens of thousands of households and businesses, will drop on 29 March.
This has been stated by the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanos (PSOE), who promised that the government will force this price reduction by means of a decree that will be approved at the meeting of the Council of Ministers scheduled for that day.
The minister said that the government is "fully aware" of the high cost of filling the gas tank, paying the electricity bill and keeping the homes warm. "And, for this reason, what the government will do is lower the price for these three services," he added.
However, he did not specify how much the price drop will be or how the government intends to carry out the reduction.
Other European countries have already announced different measures to alleviate the pressure on households consisting, for example, of tax reductions, direct compensation to buyers or by setting limits on the price of energy products.
The government says that with this measure it intends to support citizens, families, companies and self-employed workers.
Round of contacts
The Minister of the Presidency made this announcement at a press conference after a meeting in the Lower House of Parliament with the conservative Popular Party (PP), the main opposition party.
Bolanos intends to meet with the rest of the Spanish political parties - except for the right-wing populist Vox, which said they will not attend the meeting - in the framework of a round of contacts to explore measures to face the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez champions an initiative in the EU to decouple the price of electricity from that of gas and thus reduce its costs. To this end, he received Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in Madrid on Wednesday. Later, Sanchez traveled to Bratislava to present his initiative to the Slovak government.
Sanchez expects to meet 8 European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, ahead of next week's crucial European Council.
