Maud Descamps, edited by Laura Laplaud 06:15, January 26, 2022

A call for a national strike has been launched by the four main unions in the energy sector: FO, CCFE-CGC, CFDT and FNME-CGT. They are protesting against the "scandalous decision" of the Ministry of the Economy to increase by 20% the volume of electricity sold at reduced prices to its competitors to contain the rise in consumer bills.

The employees, in shock, evoke a looting, a robbery of the EDF coffers.

The solution found by the executive, that of increasing by 20% the volume of electricity sold at a reduced price to their competitors to contain the increase in consumer bills, is unanimously contested by the employees and the management of the electrician.

For Philippe Page Le Mérour, secretary of EDF's central social and economic committee, the state had other solutions within its reach than cutting EDF by 8 billion euros.

“We are asking EDF to bear the industrial risk alone,” he says.

EDF losses estimated at 3 billion euros

“We have reached the end of a system,” he continues.

"Measures for the purchasing power of the French, there are very simple ones to take. The first: lowering the VAT on a basic necessity whose consumption is today taxed at 20% when we should be on 5.5", he exclaims. 

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On the side of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the executive, EDF's losses are estimated at 3 billion euros, instead of the 8 billion announced by the company.

The subject remains no less delicate three months before the presidential election.

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"The State will always be alongside EDF", declared the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire.

A message brushed aside by the unions who plan to file an appeal in the coming days to have Bercy's decision overturned.