As before all the presidential elections, the Restos du Cœur published on Tuesday February 15 their plea of twelve commitments for the candidates, in order to place “the fight against poverty at the heart of the campaign”. Applicants must “being up to societal challenges”, Patrice Douret, volunteer president of the charity association, told AFP, especially since this election comes after two years of a pandemic. With the health crisis, “we have noticed a worsening of the situation of the people we welcome”but not an explosion in the number of applicants, indicates the president of “Restos”.
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Among the twelve commitments mentioned are easier access to food and enhanced support for the most deprived people under 25. “in order to fight against the precariousness of tomorrow”. The association also discusses the fight against the digital divide: the Restos du Cœur believe that inequality of access to the Internet has increased since the start of the health crisis, and appears to be a vector of growing distance between most vulnerable people and public services.
On the associative side, the advocacy of the Restos du Cœur calls on the candidates for the Élysée to encourage volunteering and to maintain the ceiling of the Coluche law at 1,000 euros, which allows tax exemption up to 75% of donations to associations. The increase in this ceiling, authorized until December 2023, was accompanied by an increase in donations and a clarification of the procedure, we noted on the side of the Restos du Cœur. “It would be incomprehensible and dangerous to go back”worried Patrice Douret, adding that “without solidarity actions, the country would not have held out during the first confinements”.
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The association founded by Coluche in 1985 has a habit of publishing pleas before the presidential election, while affirming its political neutrality, in order to initiate a rapprochement with the candidates, according to the president of Restos du Coeur.