The heads of the French employers’ organizations Medef and the Italian Confindustria called on French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to prepare public opinion for higher prices.
During a press conference in Paris, the heads of the organizations demanded that Macron and Draghi “announce unpopular measures” to prepare public opinion on the “complete cessation” of Russian gas supplies and the associated price increase.
“It is clear that by the end of the year we will not have Russian gas either by our will or by the will of the Russians,” Medef head Geoffroy Rue de Pizzo said.
“We will be forced to raise energy prices for consumers by calling on the French government to announce unpopular measures,” he added.
For his part, Confindustria President Carlo Bonomi demanded that “a difficult choice be made… We can envisage a complete cutoff of Russian gas supplies, so we must react quickly” and said: “The answers are not easy because the problems are not easy.”
Bonomi pointed out that one of the possible solutions is to “achieve additional efforts in the industrialized world” and the European Union’s desire “toward the Mediterranean” to receive gas supplies, despite “competition from Turkey” in the region and “the presence of China.” “Nuclear power will also play an important role,” he added.
Source: AP