It was three months ago, an eternity. A few days apart, Parliament voted the last two budget texts of the five-year term. The government had added in extremis its few support measures for households, in the face of soaring energy prices in the fall. Broad-spectrum devices, which the executive hoped would be enough to cover if not the year 2022, at least the first half, until the elections. The opposition had accused him of campaign with a chequebook”. But after having partially offset the rise in the price of fuel oil with the “energy check”, that of gas with the freezing of tariffs, that of electricity with the “tariff shield”, and that of fuel with the “inflation allowance he could consider himself serene. He was also counting on a normalization, with a slight decline in inflation this year (1.6% against 1.7% in 2021), in his draft budget for 2022.
The story didn’t quite go as planned. Tensions on energy prices continued to worsen, boosted by a faster-than-expected economic recovery and then by the war in Ukraine. And inflation has not declined: it even jumped 3.6% in February over one year, according to the latest data from INSEE. “ We were taken aback”, admits an adviser to the executive. On January 25, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, is forced to announce a new gesture, the fourth in less than six months, and revalues by 10% the scale used by households who use their vehicle to work. The following month, he must extend the gas price freeze to condominiums and HLMs, which had been excluded. He then confirms the extension of this freeze throughout the year 2022. Then decides, a few days ago, a new boost for motorists, hit by the explosion in prices at the pump, with a discount of 15 cents per litre, at a cost of over 2 billion euros.
That’s not all. Aid for companies exposed to Russia is expected as part of the resilience plan, with, possibly, the reactivation of emergency measures created for Covid-19, such as loans guaranteed by the State. And increases for 5.7 million civil servants, whose salaries have not been increased since 2017. The Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, Amélie de Montchalin, indeed promised, Tuesday, March 15, a thaw of the index point ” before summer », because “Inflation persists, it is strong and durable”, she explained in an interview with Parisian. It will be coupled with a revaluation of“at least 10%” the mileage allowance received by the agents.
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