There is unrest in Spain about the rapidly rising electricity price. On Thursday, the price for a megawatt hour (MWh) climbed to a record high of 188 euros, although the price fell slightly again today. More and more Spaniards are getting into trouble because of the price increase. A year ago, electricity in Spain cost 76 euros per MWh.
The small municipality of Batres, in the Madrid region, is now the first to refuse to pay the high electricity bill any longer. A parish also says it can no longer bear the costs. Hairdressers fear that they will have to pass on the electricity costs to their customers. The main cause is the rapidly rising gas price, which partly determines the electricity price. The European economy is also recovering faster than expected and the demand for electricity is high.
Recovering profits from energy companies
The price increase has significant consequences for some of the Spaniards, who are directly dependent on fluctuating gas prices due to their energy contract. The unrest in Spain is so great that the government is going to ease the burden by decree. This is done by lowering taxes on energy bills, but also by temporarily reclaiming the enormous profits made by electricity companies. In total, 2.6 billion euros should flow back to the state treasury.
Spain hopes in this way to reduce the energy bill for consumers by almost a quarter. “Consumers with average consumption will eventually arrive at an amount comparable to the rates in 2018,” Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez promised in a television interview earlier this week.
But a reaction was not long in coming: the nuclear power stations already threaten to shut down the installations if necessary, if Madrid demands their profits back. They are also planning a lawsuit against the state.
‘Taxes are the problem’
According to economist Jorge Sanz, the government is wrongly trying to put the blame for the high energy bill on the producers. “The costs for consumers are largely due to the hefty tax levied by the government. Due to the social unrest in Spain, they now have political unrest. They point to the international market. But that is not the problem. taxes.”
Sanz expects that the increase in electricity prices will also soon be noticeable in energy bills elsewhere in Europe. Nationalist political parties are calling on consumers to turn off the power in homes from 10 p.m. on Friday, October 8 and take to the streets in a “pan protest against blackmail” by the energy companies.
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