Mitxel Lakuntza: "Companies take advantage of inflation to reach historic highs in profits."

ELA has presented a document where it has warned that the upturn in inflation threatens a new loss of purchasing power of the working class. Aitor Murgia, head of the Studies Office, recalled that the CPI stood at 4.3% in August, seven tenths above the previous month and at levels that had not been reached since February 2023. Although rising energy and fuel prices account for much of the upturn, the situation comes after several years of sharp increases in the cost of living. Only food accumulates an increase of more than 36% in the last five years. To this is added the increase in the cost of housing and mortgages. The Euribor at twelve months has again exceeded 3%, increasing the variable average mortgage by around 100 euros per month.

ELA General Secretary Mitxel Lakuntza has stressed that at a time when the working class is impoverished, certain companies are taking advantage of the situation to maintain and even increase their margins. According to the Observatory of Business Margins, the margin on sales of oil refining companies has reached 41.5%, compared to 14.2% in the same quarter of the previous year, while the wholesale fuel trade maintains margins higher than 34%. At the same time, the companies of the Ibex 35 obtained 39.380 billion euros of profits during the first half of 2026, 20% more than a year before. Corporate margins are also at highs and reached 13.8% in the second quarter.

Lakuntza has denounced that it is not acceptable for companies to be able to immediately shift the increase of their costs to prices and protect their benefits while working people have to take on a reduction of their real wages.

Guarantee the CPI, intervene on prices and redistribute wealth

Faced with this situation, ELA has proposed a decalogue of measures aimed at guaranteeing purchasing power and ensuring decent living conditions for people.

First, wages should increase at least as much as the CPI. ELA will continue to promote wage increases through collective bargaining and proposes to establish minimum agreement salaries of 1,600 euros. It will also continue to claim its own minimum wage of 1,500 euros for Hego Euskal Herria.

Secondly, it is necessary to act on prices and not just subsidise them with public money. ELA proposes to intervene on the prices of fuels, electricity and certain energy products. Previous experiences show that tax cuts can temporarily reduce the price paid by consumers, but do not prevent companies from maintaining or increasing their margins.

ELA calls for those who are benefiting from the situation to contribute more. Because of that. it proposes to establish a tax on the extraordinary profits of energy companies, banks and supermarkets, additionally taxing the part of the profits that exceeds by 25% the average before the crisis.

The governments of Basque Country and Navarra have their own instruments to protect the disposable income of the population. ELA proposes to establish an automatic Personal Income Tax deflation mechanism in line with the CPI, preventing wage increases that do not even compensate for the increase in prices from causing a greater tax burden.

It also proposes measures to stop all housing evictions and to stop rising rents, and calls for stronger social benefits and direct aid for the most vulnerable.