A lot of noise has been raised around today’s meeting at the Maximos Mansion. And not without reason.
At the same table with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis today at 12 will be the president of SEV Spiros Theodoropoulos, the president of SEVT Ioannis Giotis, the president of the Hellenic Super Market Association Ioannis Masoutis, the Minister of Development Takis Theodorikakos and the governor of the Independent Authority for Market Control and Consumer Protection, Despina Tsangari.
The meeting is taking place at a time when inflationary pressures persist, while the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East is being tested again after the air strikes of the last few hours, rekindling fears of a new rise in energy costs and new disruptions in global supply chains. In this environment, the composition of the meeting leaves no doubt that high prices are at the center. An issue that continues to pressure households, but also to wear down the government in the polls a few months before the national elections.
Reports of an informal agreement of “price cuts in exchange for abolition of the cap” are circulating strongly in the market. However, knowledgeable sources insist that this picture is overly simplified. Not only because no one wants to appear to be bargaining over state measures, but also because such an understanding could raise questions even as to its compatibility with competition rules.
In the background, the scenario of a new “basket” is also returning, this time under Maximos as a tool for containing prices.
The composition of the meeting also shows that the agenda extends far beyond supermarket shelves. The presence of the president of SEV, Spiros Theodoropoulos, who is participating in his institutional capacity and not as a representative of the food industries he owns, is a fact that foreshadows a much broader agenda. As knowledgeable sources report, on the “table” will be competitiveness, operating costs, collective agreements and investments.
Whether anything more than a joint statement of good intentions will emerge will become clear after the end of the meeting at the Maximos Mansion, which has taken on the initiative for the interventions and decisions.
In any case, truth be told, the Maximos Mansion would hardly invest so much political capital in today’s meeting, with the prime minister himself personally taking the initiative, if there were not already in the drawer a package of specific measures ready to be announced or set in motion.
Besides, today’s meeting comes as a continuation of contacts that began in the first ten days of June under Minister of Development Takis Theodorikakos. As Euro2day.gr had revealed at the time, all scenarios had been put on the table. From an extension of the cap on the profit margin for two months to targeted price reductions on basic goods from September, under the “umbrella” of the “national social agreement”.