“We are not asking the French for any effort, we are going to carry these savings on our backs,” said Thomas Cazenave this morning on France Inter regarding the savings of 10 billion euros announced by Bruno Le Maire on Sunday evening. . .
Undoubtedly, the State will obtain a large part of these savings by reducing or shifting the expenses of its ministries and its operators, while the MaPrimeRénov’ system will see its budget significantly reduced and employees will participate in the financing of the personal training account.
But according to information from echoes As confirmed by BFM Business, fuel control will also fall by the wayside within the framework of the public deficit reduction strategy that the Government wants to reduce to 4.4% by the end of 2024. The removal of this system, activated in the event of a price at the pump higher than 2 euros per liter, as Bruno Le Maire specified in mid-December, would allow the executive to save an additional 600 million euros. This compensation, which last year only affected 50% of the poorest households, was to be expanded to 1.6 million additional beneficiaries in 2024.
Liters of diesel and unleaded gasoline are around 1.83 euros
Since January 2022, fuel prices have risen above 2 euros, as happened in March and June 2022 with diesel and in June 2022 with SP95 gasoline and SP95-10 gasoline. But this did not happen again in 2023, although prices exceeded 1.90 euros per liter in September. Last Friday the price per liter of diesel and SP95-10 exceeded 1.83 euros.
Two months ago, the head of Bercy had estimated before the BFMTV microphone that a price of 1.95 euros per liter of fuel seemed to him “a reasonable threshold” to activate the system. “If in February, March or even later, fuel prices reach this level (…), we will immediately put this protection system in place,” continued the government’s number two. “And those who work will be able to continue working without feeling upset because they are going to fill their tanks that are too expensive.”
While the Government plans to save billions to reduce France’s colossal debt and clean up its public finances, Bruno Le Maire has repeatedly recalled in recent months that the policy of controls and “whatever is necessary” was over. However, he supported the maintenance of the energy check, distributed once a year since 2018 to help the most modest homes with heating and lighting.
Source: BFM TV
