The rapid rise in prices of doner kebabs has hit the positions of the German Chancellor
The Germans blame Olaf Scholz for the sharp rise in prices for doner kebabs. Supporters of the left party Die Linke – among those calling for price caps on Germany's extremely popular street food.
Soaring prices for doner kebab have led to growing calls in Germany for a government subsidy program to keep the dish, one of the country's inflation favorites, affordable, as politicians report it comes up frequently in conversations with voters.
According to The Guardian, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is so used to being asked about the price of kebabs during public appearances that his government even posted on social media explaining that price increases are partly due to rising wages and costs. for electricity. “It’s amazing that everywhere I go, mostly from young people, people ask me whether the price of baked goods should be lowered,” says Scholz.
Far-left party Die Linke is the latest to seize on the issue and, in a motion it wants to put before parliament, calls for price caps on doner kebab similar to those introduced in some parts of the country to control high rents fee. It says that in some cities a shawarma already costs €10 (£8.60), down from €4 just two years ago.
The Party of the Left recommends setting a price cap of 4.9 euros and 2.90 euros for young people, especially from low-income groups, for whom this dish — thinly sliced grilled meat, sprinkled with finely chopped vegetables, garlic or chili sauce and wrapped in a tortilla — is a staple food for every day. This means that every family can receive daily doner vouchers.
Sales of the kebab, brought to Germany by Turkish immigrants who adapted it to local tastes, are estimated at 7 billion euros a year in Germany, notes The Guardian .
Based on the fact that Die Linke estimates that 1.3 billion doners are consumed annually in the country — 400,000 per day in Berlin alone — such a subsidy program would cost 4 billion euros per year.< /p>
Hannah Steinmüller, an MP for the Greens, the party that most often encourages people to give up meat, raised the issue in parliament earlier this year. “For young people now this is a question no less important than where they will move when they leave home. “I know that this is not an everyday issue for many people here,” she told fellow MPs, “and that it can also be a subject of ridicule, but I think as representatives of constituents we have a responsibility to highlight these different points of view.”
Chancellor Scholz, who was approached at an event by a young Turk from Germany and said: “I pay 8 euros… Talk to Putin, I want to pay 4 euros,” ruled out price regulation as “impracticable” in a free market economy. Instead, he praised the European Central Bank's «good job» in bringing down inflation.
In responses on social media, some young people called for Angela Merkel to return as chancellor, arguing that Scholz's predecessor had «kept everything under control» .
Denise, a doner seller at a kiosk near Berlin's Friedrichstraße metro station, where the price has risen from €3.90 to €7 in just over two years, said he doesn't see the possibility of prices falling in soon. “We were forced to raise prices due to sharp increases in rents, energy and food,” he said. “People keep telling us about 'denerflation' as if we are deceiving them, but it is completely out of our control.”