This is the subject that reappears as soon as the Covid-19 ebbs. Not unemployment, not security, not even the climate, but purchasing power. This concept, poorly defined by economists, partly subjective, and to which it is almost impossible to give a simple answer, 52% of French people cite it as their main concern, according to the Ipsos-Sopra Steria survey in partnership with the Center of political research from Sciences Po (Cevipof) and the Jean Jaurès Foundation for The world, published on February 11. A proportion that has been growing steadily since the fall of 2021, as energy costs – gas, electricity, fuel – have climbed, pulling with them all consumer prices.
This haunting theme has found a second wind in recent days with the movement of “freedom convoys”, which demonstrated in Paris on Saturday February 12, raising fears of a new outbreak of fire in the manner of “yellow vests”, whose movement was born from the rise in fuel prices in 2018.
The opportunity for the opposition to take up these concerns, on which no one is nevertheless able to capitalize at this stage. “In these ‘freedom convoys’ there are people who are suffering enormously from the dramatic increase in the cost of fuel, oil, electricity and gas. To these, the government responds with brutality and denial,” tweeted National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen on Thursday, February 10.
This eruption of inflation, driven by a more dynamic recovery than expected and aggravated by geopolitical tensions which weigh on energy prices, neither economists nor political leaders had anticipated.
It came to shake up not only the agenda of the executive, forced to clarify and amplify its energy strategy in favor of nuclear power, but also the campaign, forcing the candidates to reshape their proposals. The candidate of the Les Républicains party, Valérie Pécresse, who promises “a shock of purchasing power”, has continued to expand its program in this area, supplementing its promises to increase wages and monetize the RTT with that of a revaluation of the mileage scale to mitigate the rise in gasoline prices. A track retained by the executive in January.
“Modulate energy taxation”
Little mobilized on this subject at the start of his campaign, the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour made purchasing power “an absolute emergency”, proposing to create a “zero charge” bonus of up to three months’ net salary for “put an end to the scandal of too low wages”, he announced at his Lille meeting on February 5. Like Valérie Pécresse, he promises to return to the tax exemption for overtime. Marine Le Pen, she proposes to reduce VAT on the price of fuel, fuel oil and electricity.
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