Purchasing power: imminent outcome in Parliament


Deputies in session at the National Assembly, August 2, 2022 in Paris (AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA)

This is the conclusion of three weeks of fierce debates and compromises with the right: Parliament definitively adopted the second part of the package of measures in favor of purchasing power on Thursday, before a summer break for deputies and senators.

For the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, it is “a political victory” and “the demonstration that we are moving forward”… but sometimes in pain.

Purchasing power was a key subject of the presidential campaign and constituted the first big piece of the mandate, in the form of a test for the “new method” of the executive, deprived of an absolute majority at the Palais Bourbon and which is turned to the right to fill in the voices.

After a first part validated on Wednesday including 20 billion euros in expenditure, it was the turn of the rectified draft budget for 2022 and its new batch of measures to deal with inflation to be submitted to the final vote.

The National Assembly approved it by 292 votes for, 120 against and 98 abstentions.

In addition to the majority, most LR deputies voted in favor, proclaiming themselves “the only opposition useful to the French”.

RN elected officials abstained, arguing that they did not want to “hinder” the few “advances” made.

The left, which will file an appeal with the Constitutional Council, voted against, after a last stand by the Socialists via a final motion of rejection against the “crumbs” proposed.

Referring to the abolition of privileges on the night of August 4, 1789, the boss of the LFI group Mathilde Panot denounced on this anniversary date the “regeneration of a caste society”.

The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal at the National Assembly, August 2, 2022 in Paris

The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal at the National Assembly, August 2, 2022 in Paris (AFP / Alain JOCARD)

During this last session, again stormy at the Palais Bourbon, the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal criticized an “unfortunate drift of a certain left gone to the extreme”, which “has noise for method and hell tax for project”.

Then in the Senate dominated by the right, in a calmer atmosphere, the rectified draft budget was voted by 233 votes against 97. The left united against a text resulting from “an agreement” with LR which “will undermine the interests popular classes”.

The bill opens 44 billion euros in credits, including 9.7 to finance the 100% renationalization of EDF.

Are programmed the revaluation of the point of index of the civil servants, the suppression of the audio-visual royalty, the continuation of the tariff shield on the energy and the discount fuel with 30 centimes the liter in September-October then 10 in November-December.

Some 500 million euros of expenses were added during the debates.

Between the presidential majority and the right, common ground was found Wednesday evening in a joint committee. The controversial monetization of RTT will finally be possible until the end of 2025.

– “end of 35 hours” –

In the eyes of MP LR Véronique Louwagie, “it’s the return to working more to earn more”, a slogan of Nicolas Sarkozy.

For Senator LR Vincent Segouin, it is “definitively recording the end of the 35 hours” between this purchase of RTTs from employees, and the tax-exempt overtime hours which will be made permanent.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne during questions to the government at the National Assembly, August 2, 2022 in Paris

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne during questions to the government at the National Assembly on August 2, 2022 in Paris (AFP/Alain JOCARD)

Regarding the exceptional back-to-school bonus, which the Senate wanted to reserve for low-income workers, there too a compromise was made. The bonus will be paid to beneficiaries of social minima, and those receiving the activity bonus will have an additional payment.

The boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau had demanded the maintenance of another addition from the Senate, on the establishment of a biometric Vitale card. This was the case, to fight against fraud.

But there will be no tax on the “superprofits” of large groups, as demanded by the left, the extreme right and by certain centrists. Bruno Le Maire hammered home his opposition to the “Pavlovian tax reflex”.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, on July 17, 2022 at the exit of the Elysée, in Paris

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, on July 17, 2022 at the exit of the Elysée, in Paris (AFP/Archives/Alain JOCARD)

The idea of ​​a supertax, already applied in Great Britain or Italy, and demanded by the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres, had been revived by the net profit made by TotalEnergies in the second quarter, which more than doubled, to $5.7 billion. The debate should resurface in the fall.

The first part in favor of purchasing power, which had obtained the green light from Parliament on Wednesday, includes the tripling of the ceiling of the Macron bonus that can be paid by employers, the 4% increase in pensions and several allowances , as well as the “deconjugalization” of the disabled adult allowance – added in a rare moment of consensus in the Assembly.

The second part of the PLFR provides for the financing of 9.7 billion euros for a series of measures including the nationalization of EDF

The second part of the PLFR provides for the financing of 9.7 billion euros for a series of measures including the nationalization of EDF (AFP/Archives/Eric PIERMONT)

“It is the daily life of many fellow citizens that will be improved”, applauded Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who tweeted even before the final vote, welcomed, in a statement sent to AFP, having “proved that the compromise, requested by the French, was possible and accessible”.

These last elections on Thursday mark the break in work until the start of the school year. There will be no extraordinary session in September for the first time in twenty years, an illustration of the desire to better prepare the texts upstream.

© 2022 AFP

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