The National Assembly voted Tuesday at first reading by 349 votes in favor (those of the majority alone) and 205 votes against the first part of the 2022 finance bill (PLF). This first part includes in particular the famous "tariff shield" promised by the government to contain the worrying rise in electricity and gas prices.

For electricity alone, the loss of revenue for the state will amount to 5.1 billion euros next year.

An insufficient amount in the eyes of the oppositions who continue to put pressure: what response will the executive provide to the soaring fuel prices, a highly flammable subject after the crisis of "yellow vests" and six months before the presidential election?

Towards a fuel check?

"All the leads are on the table," said government spokesman Gabriel Attal, who promises a measure by "the weekend".

On Monday, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire favored that of a fuel check, on the model of the energy check, rather than a reduction in taxes on gasoline and diesel.

This "does not solve the problems of purchasing power of the middle classes", has strangled Véronique Louwagie on behalf of the LR group.

She pinned globally "a dangerous and lazy budget", with a "headlong rush towards ever more debt" and without structural reforms.

The budget deficit will amount to -148.4 billion in 2022, a figure that is still provisional.

An "electoralist" budget denounces the opposition

The left has also spoken out against this revenue component, but rather deploring the absence of “social justice” measures.

It was "the last opportunity to partially erase this mark of the majority of the rich which sticks to your skin", launched the Communist Jean-Paul Dufrègne.

This component "may not remain in the annals", released the leader of the socialist deputies Valérie Rabault, while the absence of the Minister of Public Accounts in the chamber was booed.

The oppositions agree to judge this “electoral” and “hole” budget since the government must complete several provisions in the second part dedicated to spending from next week, in particular on the France 2030 investment plan presented by Emmanuel Macron.

The Social Security budget under study

From Thursday until the weekend, the deputies will examine the Social Security budget, without an old age plan to meet the expectations of the oppositions and certain votes of the majority.

This last five-year Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) forecasts a deficit of 21.6 billion euros, much less than the two previous years, thanks to the growth and the gradual "exit from the crisis" of the Covid-19.

But "a sustainable deficit of around 15 billion euros is expected" for the years to come, recognizes the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

For LR, the government "sprinkles in the wind".

On the left, after “the relative generosity” of the electoral period, we fear “social regressions” such as pension reform.

What about the health budget?

In the meantime, the commitments of Ségur for health continue for 2.7 billion, most of which is devoted to the salary increase of nursing staff. At the heart of the debates, the section devoted to the elderly with loss of autonomy leaves many players unsatisfied. "The reform (…) is ambitious: it represents 400 million euros of new measures in 2022 and 1.3 billion in 2025", claims Minister Brigitte Bourguignon.

To help stay at home, it is a question of establishing on January 1 a national "floor price" (and not departmental as until then) of 22 euros per hour of service for home help services.

For nursing homes, a strengthening of the presence of caregivers and up to 10,000 additional full-time equivalents is planned over the next five years.

The left criticizes a plan not commensurate with the "collective challenge of an aging population" and "lies about the defunct law devoted to old age and autonomy", long hoped for and now abandoned.

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  • National Assembly

  • Finance

  • Vote

  • Gasoline prices

  • Gas prices

  • Gas

  • electricity

  • Budget

  • Economy