The Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, and the Second Vice President of the Generalitat, Héctor Illueca, have influenced their criticism of Juan Roig and have considered that he is a “ruthless capitalist” due to the price increases in Mercadona; while the secretary of Organization of Podemos, Lilith Verstrynge, has criticized the “little shame” of the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, for opposing the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage.
This is how the three political representatives have spoken this Saturday at an act in Valencia, in which almost all the speakers have taken the opportunity to criticize the large distributors. In the case of Belarra, the general secretary has criticized that taxes are not raised and has ironized the position of the Socialists: “They can’t even say Juan Roig, as to raise taxes,” she added.
In this sense, he has stressed that calling Roig a “ruthless capitalist” is not “an insult, but a description” and has taken up Illueca’s words to say that “those who generate wealth in this country are the workers, not the businessmen” .
For his part, the Valencian Vice President, Héctor Illueca, has taken the opportunity to also charge against health privatization and has defended the third Botànic so that no “multinational company continues to parasitize the health system” and so that “the change in the production model is truly a priority, even if some businessman doesn’t like that”.
Verstrynge, in his speech, pointed out the large distributors and specifically Mercadona, which “occupies 25% of the market”. “That is called oligopoly,” she pointed out, adding, quoting the President of the United States, Joe Biden, that “capitalism without competition is exploitation.” “Just the same, you have to tell Joan Roig that he is a ruthless capitalist,” he added.
He has also reproached the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, who “has updated his salary in a timely manner” “while having the little shame to say that the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage was going to bring destruction.” “You have to have little shame to collect 400,000 euros a year and say that raising the SMI is going to sink the economy,” he added.
For her part, the director of Injuve and candidate of Podemos for the autonomous elections for Alicante, María Teresa Pérez, has indicated that her formation does not “mind words” and is not “afraid of facing any powerful one”, at the same time that she has criticized “scoundrels like Juan Roig who raise the price of food in Mercadona in the middle of the war to cover themselves at our expense”. “That’s being a ruthless capitalist and we’re going to do whatever it takes to protect people from his greed,” she said.
He has also taken the opportunity to criticize “former vice presidents and councilors” -in an implicit reference to Carmen Calvo and Gabriela Bravo- who “although they call themselves socialists and progressives, from their bourgeois quarters they are questioning LGTBI and feminist rights conquered in the streets ” and that they are called “populist girls” who “do not know how to pass laws.” Likewise, she has criticized judges who do not “correctly” apply the law of Yes is Yes.
The act served to wrap up Pilar Lima, Podemos candidate for mayor of Valencia, whom Belarra summoned to become “the first deaf mayor” of that city.
“I have always seen her knock down all the obstacles that life has put in front of her. Notice that she is the only one who leaves without paper, what Pilar does is very difficult. I’m going to give my all so that you can be the first deaf mayor of the city of Valencia”, highlighted the minister, who made a special mention of the candidate during her speech.
For her part, Pilar Lima opened the meeting by analyzing the needs of the Valencian capital. “What is happening in Valencia? It is a city that is only looking outwards and is collapsed by tourist apartments, like Granada, and that is why the vulture funds are coming here”.
The candidate continued reflecting on the Valencians and their life expectations. “What is happening to the people here? That we are losing neighbors, that they cannot stay in the neighborhoods in which they have always lived. But in Podemos we are resistant and stubborn, we have shown it in the Government of Spain and in the Valencian Government ”, she concluded.
