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As Europeans face soaring energy prices and inflation, the French are also dealing with a surge in costs for a dietary staple that has—at least partially—already been blamed for starting a revolution: bread.
“Consumers can afford to pay more for now, but prices will keep rising,” Julien Bourgeois, who runs a flour mill in central France, told The New York Times. He told the paper that his family business has seen the price of wheat skyrocket more than 30 percent. To make matters worse, he said his electricity bill tripled. (See “MASSIVE PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN PARIS OVER SOARING PRICES,” “RADICAL AMERICANS FUNDING LONDON ‘JUST STOP OIL’ PROTEST” and “MACRON FACES LARGE PROTESTS OVER WORKING CONDITIONS.”)
“We remember the revolution started over the price of bread,” he said, referring to the French Revolution in 1798.
Linda Civitello, the author of “Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People,” wrote that bread was considered a public service necessity at the time and kept the people from rioting.
The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the push to unionize and the New World Disorder that includes angry mobs of people tired of the status quo. It is worth noting that students are a major driver in these French protests. We had forecast that the young, who still have the energy to fight, will be major players in these movements as they sink into economic despair.
John Lichfield, the correspondent in Paris for The Independent for 20 years, wrote for UnHerd that some in the country see these large-scale protests as the start of a major movement for workers.
“There is a dangerous challenge to Macron from CGT-affiliated workers in the nuclear industry,” he wrote. “Just under half of France’s 56 nuclear reactors are already closed for emergency repairs and routine maintenance and the strike is delaying their re-opening. If it persists, there could be widespread black-outs this winter. In sum, the hard Left overplayed its hand this week but they will threaten Macron again later in the year.”
Bourgeois told the paper that inflation—which is at about 6.2 percent in France—is brutally high and he appealed to bakeries to charge about 10 cents more for his baguettes to help offset costs.
TRENDPOST: Gerald Celente has warned since the start of the war that the Western sanctions would end up hurting European countries more than Moscow. And now, finally, the mainstream economists say the trend is only going to get worse as the rising costs of staple goods are impacting society. The Ukraine War has been blamed on these price surges, but countries across Europe have faced droughts in recent months that hurt crops.
The Wall Street Journal, citing Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy, reported that Kyiv shipped out about 6.9 million metric tons of various agricultural products, including grain, last month.
To put the number into perspective, Ukraine exported about 7.1 million tons in September 2021.
These shipments may offer just a temporary respite, because it is widely believed that Ukrainian farmers planted few crops this year due to the war, so there will be a dramatic drop in output during next year’s harvest.
Italy Deals With Soaring Electricity Prices
Italy’s National Union of Consumers reported last week that electricity tariffs jumped 136 percent on an annual basis last month as inflation hit 8.9 percent in the country.
Reuters noted that Mario Draghi, the outgoing Italian prime minister, has already earmarked $64.92 billion for tax breaks and subsidies to help energy-intensive firms and poor households. The report also noted that Giorgia Meloni, Draghi’s expected successor, intends to increase government borrowing in an effort to tame energy prices that have hurt the average Italian.
Besides energy, Italians have seen a jump in prices at the grocery store. Butter is up 38 percent and rice also jumped 26.7 percent, according to RT.com.
“Only for food and drink, every single Italian family will pay an average of €660 more per year,” Massimiliano Dona, the consumer union’s president, told the outlet. He added that families with two children will have to pay €900 more, and those with three, €1,075 more per year.