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The National Assembly embarked on a new high-risk race on Friday. That of the review of the amending budget, after already four days and as many nights of heated debate on the bill in favor of purchasing power, adopted at first reading in the early morning.
“Our Assembly can be the sound and the fury” but “I suggest that it be the light of August”, imagined the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, at the kick-off in the afternoon of the debates on the second part of the package of measures to deal with galloping inflation.
“You are starting from the precepts of neoliberalism. We have to start from the needs”
After the vote on the first part shortly before 6 a.m. on Friday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was pleased that “the spirit of responsibility has [it] carried away to protect our fellow citizens”. The game is not won for the presidential camp, deprived of an absolute majority.
The amending finance bill for 2022 includes the continuation of the fuel rebate and the tariff shield on energy, the revaluation of the index point for civil servants, the financing of the takeover bid to renationalise EDF and the abolition of the audiovisual license fee.
“You are starting from the precepts of neoliberalism. We must start from needs”, immediately attacked the rebellious Eric Coquerel at the podium, believing that it was necessary to fight against “ecological debt”.
Exchanges until Saturday evening or even Sunday
The exchanges must continue until Saturday evening or even Sunday. The government has already cleared, at least in part, several subjects. Thus, while the demand rose, even in the majority, to tax the “superprofits” of the large groups, the pressure was put in particular on TotalEnergies and the giant of the maritime transport CMA CGM.
The first conveniently announced Friday morning a discount at the pump of 20 cents per liter between September and November in all its service stations, then 10 cents per liter for the rest of the year. CMA CGM will reduce its freight rates by 750 euros per 40-foot container to mainland France and the Overseas Territories.
“There was an intense negotiation that was carried out”, underlined Bruno Le Maire on RMC / BFMTV, welcoming these gestures. The Minister of the Economy also continues to pin the “intellectual scam” of the left which, according to him, demands taxes at all costs. “Today we have dozens of amendments tabled, which would lead to billions of euros in additional taxes,” he said. But “a tax has never improved the lives of our compatriots”.
The thorny question of the abolition of the royalty
More open to proposals from the right, the minister agrees to an increase in state aid, currently at 18 cents per liter of fuel. The support of LR is hoped to have this draft budget adopted without having to rely on the votes of the RN.
The deputies already approved this Friday an increase in the tax exemption ceiling for overtime for 2022, which thus goes from 5,000 to 7,500 euros. They also voted to double the tax-free aid that companies can pay to employees to cover their fuel costs, raising the ceiling from 200 to 400 euros. They also validated a measure favorable to the increase in restaurant vouchers, anticipating the revaluation of exemptions for employers.
The abolition of the royalty, promise of Emmanuel Macron, is just as thorny. The left is upwind and the Socialists are instead proposing a “universal and progressive contribution” to finance public broadcasting. The question is not settled, while the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal said he was “ready” to look at the trail of a “tax assignment”.
The Borne method put to the test
“Building majorities of projects to provide concrete solutions to the French, we have succeeded” so far, believes Elisabeth Borne, whose method is being tested on this first package of measures from the legislature.
In the “emergency” bill for purchasing power, the revaluation of pensions and social benefits, the increase in the ceiling of the “Macron bonus” and again, in a rare moment of harmony, the deconjugalization of disabled adult allowance.
For the overall vote, acquired by 341 votes for, 116 against and 21 abstentions, the government received the support of elected officials LR and RN who timidly welcomed certain “advances”, while the left was indignant at a project in the form of of a “declaration of war on wages”. The Socialists mostly abstained, unlike the rest of the Nupes who voted against.
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