Rising gasoline prices in France: the executive looking for the right measure

A motorist in a service station in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris (Image illustration).

BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP

Text by: Valérie Gas Follow

1 min

Gasoline prices at the pump are soaring in France.

A situation that worries the executive which is looking for the right measure to avoid a new social crisis in the middle of the presidential campaign.

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The price of gasoline is a highly flammable subject for the government.

The memory of the crisis of "yellow vests" after the increase in the fuel tax is in everyone's memory.

Call for distributors

In Emmanuel Macron's entourage, measures are therefore announced for " 

 ".

" 

 ", in any case, so as not to let the discontent of the millions of French people who have to take their cars to go to work, pollute the political debate in the middle of the presidential campaign.

An appeal was launched this week to distributors by the Minister of Ecological Transition to reduce their margins while waiting to find the right government measure.

Target the most vulnerable

Lowering taxes on fuel, in particular VAT, as advocated by the socialist Anne Hidalgo or Marine Le Pen, then means accepting consequences on tax revenue.

Establish a floating tax as proposed by the Communist Fabien Roussel, freeze prices, establish a moratorium of a few weeks or give a check to the French as has been done to mitigate the rise in the price of gas, this would make it possible to target the populations most fragile.

All avenues are under study.

One thing is certain: the government will once again have to open the purse strings.

►Also read: France: the rise in fuel prices tends to users and the government

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