Campaign promise in the face of galloping inflation, the bill on purchasing power and its myriad of support measures arrive Monday in the hemicycle of the National Assembly, where the opposition will storm aid proposals new.
The bill of 20 articles “on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power” passes first reading until Thursday, with more than a thousand amendments to the key. MEPs will continue with the examination of the draft amending budget for 2022 which should make it possible to finance and complete these measures. Among the main ones are the early increases of 4% of retirement pensions and social benefits, the 3.5% increase in the salary of public officials, a means-tested food check of 100 euros, to which will be added 50 euros per child.
There is also the extension of the fuel discount of 18 cents and the tariff shield on energy, the abolition of the audiovisual license fee or even the tripling of the Macron bonus (tax-free and exempt from social security contributions). The final adoption, after a shuttle with the Senate, is scheduled for August 7, if the government’s plan goes as planned. Because, for lack of an absolute majority, the game promises to be difficult for the macronists if they want to preserve the financial “balances”.
During the past week, the government suffered a first setback on the health bill, amputated from a key article on the possible return of an anti-Covid health pass for entries into France. It’s time for mobilization on the side of the majority on this text, “the most awaited of the French” and a high stake in the presidential and legislative campaigns.
Faced with high inflation (5.8% over one year in June), LR deputies are pushing in particular for a “lower fuel price to 1.5 euros per litre”, RNs for a reduction in VAT on prices Energy. The left alliance Nupes will decline in amendments its own “social emergency” text with an increase in the minimum wage to 1,500 euros or taxation of the “superprofits” of large groups. The president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, on Monday judged the text “dangerous”, because, according to her, it “acts the refusal to increase salaries […], the refusal to dig into the private treasury , and prefers to dig into the public treasury to stuff the private treasury”.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, castigates the “financial madness” of the opposition with their 100 billion euros of proposals while the burst of aid discussed this week is estimated at around twenty billion euros and that the guardians of public finances, like the Court of Auditors, are already ticking. However, he reached out to the LRs, saying he was open to further tax exemption for overtime – as voted in committee – and to broaden the compensation for those who use their vehicle to go to work.
