via Associated Press
POLITICS – The National Assembly launched this Friday July 22 in a new high-risk race, that of the examination of the amending budget, after already four days and as many nights of heated debates on the bill in favor of the purchasing power, adopted at first reading early in the 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.
The amending finance bill for 2022 includes the continuation of the fuel discount 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.
Assembly divided over superprofits
The exchanges must continue until Saturday evening or even Sunday. The government has already cleared, at least in part, several subjects. While the pressure is increasing, even in the majority, to tax the “superprofits” of the large groups, the pressure has been put in particular on TotalEnergies and the giant of the maritime transport CMA CGM.
The first conveniently announced this 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 (some 67 m3) to mainland France and the Overseas Territories.
“There was an intense negotiation which was carried out”, underlined Bruno Le Maire on RMC / BFMTV, welcoming these gestures. LREM MP Stella Dupont also withdrew her amendment, believing that her “vigilance” had “paid off”.
But the left and members of the majority remain unsatisfied, believing that the gesture made by Total was far from the “billions” of accumulated superprofits. Thierry Benoit (Horizons group) said in the meeting that he “appreciated (had) Total’s gesture” but was “not satisfied with it”.
Fuel Help
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 on 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. It was increased from 200 to 600 for the Overseas Territories, via a sub-amendment by deputies from the opposition group LIOT. Bruno Le Maire confirmed that it would be possible to combine it with the management of the public transport subscription.
The deputies also adopted another LREM amendment which intends to promote an increase in the “sustainable mobility package” paid by employers: the ceiling for accumulation with transport subscriptions will increase from 600 to 800 euros.
Increase in the ceiling for meal vouchers
They also validated a measure favorable to the increase in restaurant vouchers, anticipating the revaluation of exemptions for employers. The Minister of the Economy had indicated earlier in the day that he was in favor of the daily ceiling for meal vouchers increasing from 19 to 25 euros.
In the “emergency” bill for purchasing power, the revaluations of pensions and social benefits, the increase in the ceiling of the “Macron bonus” and again, in a rare moment of harmony, the deconjugation of the 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 “declaration of war on wages”. The Socialists mostly abstained, unlike the rest of the Nupes who voted against.
See also also on the Huffpost: The promise of peaceful debates of the RN will not have held long
