The oppositions criticized on Sunday the measure announced the day before by Jean Castex of a discount at the pump of 15 centimes per liter from April 1.
Like the LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse who judged “the string a little big”, the oppositions criticized Sunday an “electoralist” measure after the announcement by the Prime Minister of a discount at the pump of 15 centimes per liter from 1 April. “The state is giving back the money from the gas hike, that’s what I asked for, the only question I’m asking myself is why on April 1st, why not now since it’s now that the French can no longer move?”, reacted on Europe 1 / Cnews / Les Echos the president of the Ile-de-France region.
“April 1 is 10 days from the election, the string is a little big,” she lamented. “I don’t know if these 15 cents represent exactly all the gains the state has made, maybe not all the gains, so I would have preferred the Prime Minister to tell us: I’m giving all the money back to the French,” she added.
Find the results of our daily survey #LaPrésidentielleEnTempsRéel by clicking here
The measure will cost around two billion euros
By announcing on Saturday a pump discount of 15 cents per liter from April 1 and for 4 months for all French people, Jean Castex assured that this was the case. The measure will cost the State around 2 billion euros and according to the Prime Minister “over the first half of 2022 and if prices remain at this level, tax revenues on fuels would increase by less than 2 billion euros” . “I can’t let it be said that the state is filling its pockets with it. It’s clearly the opposite”, he insisted, also insisting on “the 20 billion euros devoted since last October to the protection of the purchasing power of the French”.
“As by chance, it would be 10 days from the 1st round of the presidential election, the government is giving us an electoralist discount, we can clearly see the big electoralist string”, denounced on Franceinfo the spokesman of the RN Julien Odoul. According to him, the measure is also “ridiculous because 15 cents per liter does not even come back to the tax increases which were decided by Emmanuel Macron, which were around 19 cents per litre”.
For Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign manager, Manuel Bompard, “it’s better than no reduction at all, of course, but it’s very largely insufficient and it’s not the right method”. It is necessary “to move towards a measure to block the price, to bring the price back to the price it was at before the start of the crisis around 1 euro 40 per litre, and to involve the gas and electricity distributors and the fuel distributors”, he added on RMC.
Any reproduction prohibited