The National Assembly approved this Tuesday an aid of 230 million euros for the heating of homes with firewood, during the first reading examination of the draft amending budget for 2022. This aid, taking as a model the one introduced this summer for the heating of gas-oil fireplaces, plans to help more and more homes to use firewood or pellets for heating, these cylindrical sticks whose prices are through the roof.
The socialist amendment in favor of these aids, approved with 218 votes in favor and only one against, received the support of the Government. Several opposition groups had made proposals in this sense, and the Executive had wanted from the beginning of the debates that it would be “open” about it. “It is a great victory for all the parties”, greeted the Delegate Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal in the hemicycle.
He added that the government was mobilized to clarify suspicions of speculation with firewood. “We won’t hesitate to crack down” on fraud, she said. According to the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe), wood is the main source of heating for more than three million French people, with more and more pellet boilers.
Increased resources dedicated to MaPrimeRénov
On Tuesday night, a modification of the LR was also approved to increase by 29 million euros the means allocated to ‘MaPrimeRénov’, a device to help the thermal renovation of homes. Its goal is to make it more accessible to the middle classes. The Assembly also approved an aid of 5 million euros to the press to face the rise in the price of paper, proposed by the Renaissance deputy Denis Masséglia.
This aid had already been proposed as part of the 2023 budget project. But the Government had not kept it in the text on which it committed its responsibility to approve it without a first reading vote in the Assembly. MEPs have been examining the draft amending budget for 2022 since Monday in session, the second of the current year, which provides for a series of anti-inflationary extensions.
Il contient notamment des mesures pour support les universités face à la hausse des prix de l’energie, pour les armées face à la flambée des prix du carburant or encore le prolongement de la ristourne de 30 centimes per liter à la pompe jusqu’au 15 november. The project also provides for the payment of a new energy check of 100 to 200 euros for the most modest households to cushion the blow of inflation. Credits of up to €450 million are also available to help farmers.
The Government hopes to be able to obtain a favorable global vote for this modified budget for 2022, without having to play without accountability through article 49.3 of the Constitution as it did for the first reading approval of the 2023 State and Security Budgets Social.
Source: BFM TV
