One last hope. With the left and the National Rally fearing a motion of no confidence against Michel Barnier starting next week on the social security budget, the government could give in on several points. But in a context of total savings, Bercy is reticent.
Among the “red lines” marked by Marine Le Pen after leaving a meeting in Matignon on Monday is, for example, the increase in taxes on electricity. Without this increase, the French could have expected a reduction in their bill of at least 20%.
“A gesture about electricity” in the pipes”
A true casus belli, therefore, for the president of the RN deputies who has defended the defense of purchasing power in recent years.
The Minister of Economy approached BFMV this Thursday morning. Antoine Armand indicated that he was “ready to take a step forward in terms of electricity”, without mentioning precise figures.
If Marine Le Pen calls for the complete elimination of these new taxes, the Bercy tenant refuses to allow this to be done “at any price.” The measure has the merit of contributing at least 3,000 million euros to the State coffers.
Total indexation of pensions to inflation unlikely
Second point of conflict with the RN: the non-indexation of retirement pensions to inflation as of January 1. Laurent Wauquiez, head of the LR deputies, has already obtained an adjustment to the measure. Pensions will be partially increased from January before a second increase in July for pensions below the minimum wage, but the move is not enough for Marine Le Pen.
He has already judged this “inadmissible compromise.” However, the government believes it has made an important gesture. The deindexation of retirement pensions was supposed to allow the State to earn 4 billion euros. After Laurent Wauquiez’s announcements, in the end only 3 billion should be saved.
Last “red line”: reducing drug reimbursement by 5%. This measure is not included in the social security budget, but would be implemented by ministerial decree, favoring on paper a possible step back by the government. At the moment, the issue is not on the table. However, 900 million euros would be saved.
Exit the “Lépine tax competition” of the left
The left is not left out either. To avoid voting on the motion of censure that could bring down Michel Barnier, he pressures the government to adopt a budget “that responds to the needs of the French”, in the words of Éric Coquerel, the rebellious president of the Finance Committee.
Among the criteria that would allow the New Popular Front to support a budget that it would consider compatible with its positioning, we find, of course, numerous measures voted in the chamber under its leadership.
Among them we find, for example, a long-term tax for the richest, far from the exceptional contribution to the wealthiest desired by Michel Barnier. We also find the increase in taxes on capital income or even a new tax on the wealth of billionaires.
“The budget thus profoundly transformed in the National Assembly under our leadership made it possible to improve the living conditions of the vast majority of French people, focusing the effort only on the most fortunate,” wrote the tenors of the left in a column in Le Monde published last week.
At the moment, the government has no intention of adopting any left-wing proposals. Michel Barnier had denounced, in the midst of the budget study in the National Assembly, “the Lépine fiscal competition” of the left.
Use political rather than budgetary arguments.
Rather than abandoning budgetary measures, Michel Barnier’s ministers are now trying to exert political pressure on the opposition. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon highlighted on Wednesday “the incredible responsibility” of the Socialists if the left presents a motion of censure.
Without Olivier Faure’s deputies, the motion of censure has much less chance of being approved, as Emmanuel Macron already pointed out.
The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, for his part, tried to convince the RN deputies not to support the motion of censure presented by the left. “I don’t think Marine Le Pen will agree to mix her voices with those of LFI,” the Place Beauvau tenant said on Tuesday.
Without convincing. “Democratic institutions and reality demand that we sometimes vote with our political enemies,” RN MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy said on BFMTV on Wednesday.
Source: BFM TV
