“Those who produce wealth are increasingly also those who struggle to make a living from their work.” This is the reflection of MEP Pasquale Tridico, head of the M5s delegation in Brussels and already candidate for the presidency of the Calabria Region, after yesterday’s meeting in Vibo Valentia with farmers, hauliers and students, in which he participated together with the president of the Movement Giuseppe Conte.
Tridico describes a “peaceful mobilization, which goes far beyond the demands of individual categories” and which, in his opinion, brings out “a profound contradiction in our economic system”.
Agriculture, the gap between costs and sales prices
For the five-star exponent, the case of agriculture is “emblematic”: small producers are “crushed between the increase in production costs and sales prices that do not cover the expenses incurred”.
«The same products, along the distribution chain, undergo significant increases until they arrive on supermarket shelves at prices that are increasingly less accessible for families», observes Tridico. A situation that he interprets as the symptom of an imbalance in the distribution of value, capable of penalizing both producers and consumers and which requires reflection on the bargaining power of the various actors in the supply chain.
The proposals: minimum agricultural price and diesel cap
Tridico indicates three possible structural responses: a fair minimum price to protect small agricultural producers, a cap on the price of diesel and a taxation of the extra profits of large oil multinationals. Measures with which, he claims, also address the increase in costs that weigh on production activities.
The presence of the students and the solidarity of the families, he adds, demonstrate “how much this mobilization intercepts a broader social malaise, which crosses generations and production categories”. Hence the call to politics, which “cannot continue to ignore the social and economic question”.
«Restoring dignity to work»
“A model in which the costs of crises are systematically passed on to workers, small producers and families, while the benefits of growth are concentrated disproportionately in the hands of a few is no longer sustainable,” says the MEP. «Restoring dignity to work also means intervening on price formation mechanisms and guaranteeing a more equitable distribution of the wealth produced. This is where we need to start again”, concludes Tridico.