In the Antwerp district of Wilrijk, the action by PVDA continued on Saturday at a gas station on Boomsesteenweg, next to the A12. The protesters had dressed up as oil barrels.
“Total, BP, Shell, Exxon, all these companies are making record profits,” says Jos D’Haese, PVDA party leader in the Flemish parliament. “We’re talking 40 billion for the first three months of 2022 alone. How can we accept this when people can’t take it anymore? The government should let the multinationals contribute to pay for the price reduction.”
PVDA argues that the federal government must intervene to prevent more and more people from getting into financial difficulties.
“Anyone who has to use the car to go to work has no choice but to pay blue in diesel or petrol,” says D’Haese. “The population is suffering, many workers have no alternative and meanwhile the oil multinationals are making unprecedented profits. That is no longer tenable.”
Also last month, several local branches of the PVDA carried out so-called ‘honking actions’ to call on the government to do something about the high fuel prices.