7
May
2025
Watch
High levels of retail food prices and their consequences for European consumers (debate)
Madam President, thank you very much. People struggle to afford food, but what does the ruling right do in Sweden and in the EU? Nothing. In Sweden, three food wholesalers decide prices and take home billions of dollars, while families with children are forced to opt out of basic goods. Three food giants – it is an oligopoly and it drives prices up every day. The right often talks about the importance of competition, but when it comes to ordinary people being able to afford to eat their fill, the right ... does nothing. How can it be reasonable for a few companies to control what we eat and what it costs? Over a hundred years ago, people, mostly women and workers, went out in the potato uprising all over Sweden. I actually see a similar desperation as then, even though it's been a whole century. Food prices are politics. Food should be a right for everyone and everyone should be able to afford a good cup of coffee.