Wednesday on the third day, 390 amendments remained to be examined on this text providing for the early revaluation of 4% of retirement pensions and social benefits, as well as measures to ensure the country’s energy supply – a subject promising lively discussions with left.

Ending the debates on Thursday, as originally planned, is a challenge. MEPs must continue with the draft amending budget for 2022 which must ensure funding and complete the arsenal in the face of inflation.

“The battle will be even more fierce, because there are major budgetary choices there,” we predict at the PS group.

The Assembly will sit for this until Saturday evening, or even Sunday, anticipate several elected officials, in order to complete this first reading of the purchasing power package, and to pass the ball to the Senate, with a view to final adoption on 7 august.

“We must stick to this calendar” for these “emergency laws”, press the leader of the LREM deputies Aurore BergĂ©, who deplored on France Inter the debates hitherto “slow” and “often caricatural”.

It refers to the votes against or the abstention of the left-wing Nupes alliance on the continuation of the “Macron bonus” as well as on the simplification of profit-sharing in companies. These elected officials see it as a “subterfuge offered to the bosses” to avoid wage increases.

No substantive amendment has been adopted so far. If the exchanges drag on, it is not so much because of the relative majority of the macronists, but because “the beginning of the legislature is conducive to everyone wanting to express themselves and mark their positions”, notes an official of the majority. “It will dry up over time,” she wants to believe.

New vice-presidents of the Assembly also direct the debates, and hesitate to limit them. The LREM, MoDem and Horizons thus watched the “scuds” pass between LFI and RN who are vying for the figure of first opponent.

– “listening” to LR –

Advantage of the situation: in parallel, discussions are going well behind the scenes. First with the LRs, whose votes are precious in the Assembly as in the Senate, and which could allow the majority not to have the only support from the RN deputies.

An agreement is thus in sight between the executive and the right-wing deputies on the key subject of fuel (in the amending budget), in order to slightly increase the current rebate of 18 cents per litre, but by waiving the fuel allowance for low-income workers and heavy-duty riders.

“I spoke with the Prime Minister who has listened, who needs this (amendment budget) to be adopted” and “I am hopeful that we will come to an agreement”, indicated the boss. LR deputies to Franceinfo.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire also assured that the LR proposals “on overtime and on the possible redemption of RTT” were “welcome”.

The Nupes left denounces for its part the absence of “compromise” around its proposals. With a series of indignant reactions on Tuesday evening when LREM deputy Christine Le Nabour launched to the ecologist Sandra Regol: “We never said that we wanted to compromise with you”.

The macronists claim, however, to show openness, with PS amendments adopted in committee on the energy component. And they praise the “gathering” of political forces around the deconjugalization measure of the disabled adult allowance (AAH), without taking into account the income of the spouse – a measure refused under the previous legislature.

No agreement, however, on the taxation of the superprofits of large groups, an idea pushed by the left, the RN and even LR and a dozen LREM. “It is better to immediately pay less expensive gasoline to go on vacation” rather than “to hope for the proceeds of a tax in a year, in two years”, answers Aurore BergĂ©.

On July 14, Emmanuel Macron said “yes” to a contribution but “not in demagoguery”.