The subject of purchasing power crystallizes all the tensions. Speaking at the microphone of France Inter, Monday July 4, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, sparked a controversy by suggesting that the Egalim law – passed in 2018, and intended to distribute the value more equitably within of the food chain and to better remunerate farmers – could be tweaked. This at the end of a mission by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) which he announced to be launching to verify that the “10% above the resale at a loss threshold [marge minimale sur les produits alimentaires que la loi Egalim impose aux distributeurs] go well with the producers and do not get lost elsewhere ». If this was not the case, “we will have to think about the possibility of modifying” measures, such as raising the threshold for food promotions “at 50% so that there are discount prices for those who need it”while the Egalim law caps them at 34% in value.
Words that immediately triggered an outcry from the agricultural federations. “It was a simple suggestion, not a proposal”, hastened to rectify its teams at Bercy. Back to calm, Tuesday July 5, after a discussion with the agricultural unions. Christiane Lambert, President of the FNSEA, and Arnaud Gaillot, President of Young Farmers, shared their “their concerns and the minister was convinced. He undertook not to change the supervision of promotions “, we say in Bercy. He also confirmed to them that the mission of the IGF, intended to “to objectively study the price formation of a basket of everyday products”will report its results in early September, “so as to objectify the debate”.
But the spark had been lit a few days earlier, by Michel-Edouard Leclerc, the president of the strategic committee of the E. Leclerc centers. On June 30, he assured on BFMTV and RMC that “half the price increases” requested by food industry “are not transparent and are suspicious”. Calling on MPs to open “a commission of inquiry into the origins of inflation, into what is happening on the price front from transport to consumers”and judging that “many of the increases requested are increases in anticipation, even speculation”. These declarations immediately provoked reactions from the political class in the National Assembly, the parliamentary group Nupes-La France insoumise and that of the National Rally calling for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
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