Galp's profits in the first half of the year have created a well-deserved outrage. That's 420 million euros in a single semester, an impressive figure, an increase of 153% compared to the already formidable figures of the first half of 2021. The figure would be more impressive if the Media had chosen to highlight the quantification of these profits according to international financial reporting standards (IFRS), because the amounts increase to 713 million euros in profits, 207% more than in the same period in 2021.

Galp itself attributes these remarkable results to the “favourable international environment” (from the report presented to the CMVM (Securities Market Commission), meaning wars, sanctions and rampant inflation, a situation that is being used by big capital, as the PCP has denounced. It is still shocking, even if revealing the inhuman nature of capitalism, to justify these profits with the "favourable international environment", both because of the direct victims caused by the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and so many others. countries, or because of the consequences for workers and peoples of the world resulting from inflation and energy restrictions.

Galp's accounts also reveal two other figures that have been less propagated: that from the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2022, its refining margin increased by 604% and the sale price of the generated solar energy increased by 170%. In other words, the demonstration that what is happening is an unacceptable speculative movement on prices, and that the government's policy has been completely wrong. The partial tax cut that has taken place is, in practice, fuelling the profits of these companies and the support given to some sectors is far below the escalation of prices.

It is also particularly significant that Galp obtains these results at a time when the closure of the Matosinhos Refinery has a negative impact on its accounts, in addition to the profound damage it causes to the national economy, by increasing external dependence on a number of refined products. Once again, it is demonstrated that the interest of big capital is not the national interest.

As the PCP has claimed, what is required are measures that can in fact put a stop to speculation on fuel prices and give back to the country control over a strategic sector for its economy:

• Fixing maximum prices for fuels;
• Special taxation on the huge profits that oil companies are making through speculation, war and sanctions;
• End of double taxation of VAT on ISP (tax on petroleum products);
• Restore  public control of Galp.

These are measures to make a rupture with the liberalisation of the sector, and to break the national subservience to the impositions of the European Union and big capital. But these Galp results, which contrast with the difficulties being imposed on the Portuguese people, show that it is indeed necessary to make a break with right-wing policies, as the PCP has been warning for a long time.