The parliamentarians are preparing to sit for a long night, some 375 amendments remaining on the table. It is a question of completing this first reading, which should have ended last Friday evening, and passing the baton to the Senate as soon as possible.
A key measure against inflation should be approved without incident: the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire is ready to temporarily increase the discount on the liter of fuel from 18 to 30 centimes, in a compromise with the Republican deputies.
“The discount could increase from 18 to 30 euro cents in September and October, then increase to 10 in November and 10 in December”, detailed the minister on Saturday. With the discount of 20 cents at the pump announced by TotalEnergies, “you would have in certain service stations in France a fuel at 1.5 euros”, threshold defended by LR.
The gesture of Total, which manages a third of the service stations in France, will have “an effect on competition”, underlined the boss of the right-wing group Olivier Marleix Monday morning on France Inter, welcoming that the LR deputies are “useful” .
The threat, finally dismissed, of a tax on the “superprofits” of large groups, which was requested by the left, the RN and mezzo voce by the right and some in the majority, had its effect, he said. also raised.
Mr. Marleix still defends a boost for fuel in rural areas, which Mr. Le Maire said he was sensitive to.
– Vote out of 9.7 billion –
Another big piece of the next night: the Assembly must validate the financing by the State of the 100% renationalization of EDF, an operation at 9.7 billion euros intended to leave the group of production and supply of electricity from its financial and industrial rut.
The State already owns 84% of EDF and intends to launch a public purchase offer (OPA) due to end at the end of October.
The right and left oppositions are not hostile to it but set their conditions for the reorganization of EDF and energy policy.
On the menu again: back-to-school check of 100 euros for 8 million households, increase in the index point for civil servants, after recent days the votes for further tax exemption for overtime, the possible takeover by RTT companies, and again the abolition of the audiovisual license fee.
In the first part of the purchasing power package, adopted early Friday morning, were the revaluations of pensions and social benefits, the increase in the ceiling of the “Macron bonus” and also, in a rare moment of harmony, the deconjugalization of the allowance for disabled adults.
The examination of these key texts of the legislative summer is akin to a hurdle race for the government, deprived of an absolute majority. It is mainly with the right that the executive seeks to compose, essential voices to do without the votes of the RN.
The left has mainly come out against the first bill and its orientations deemed “liberal” and anti-environment, and should do the same on the second text.
– Pitfalls –
The last exchanges in the hemicycle, Saturday evening, turned out badly for the presidential camp: the LREM deputies were outvoted, faced with the conjunction of votes from the left, the RN, the LRs but also, and this is the first time, members of the Horizons group allied with the majority.
Thus, against the advice of the government, the Assembly decided for 2022 to allocate 120 million to the departments which pay the RSA, to fully compensate for the 4% increase in this benefit programmed by the State.
This episode illustrates the new constraints weighing on the macronists, forced to do hand-sewn, measure by measure, to thwart the pitfalls and guarantee the votes in their direction.
Since Saturday, they have had the support of ten substitute members of the government who arrived at the Assembly within the legal period of one month, before the support of 11 others on August 4.
