Paris (AFP)
While the government has just presented its third crisis budget, LR tried to respond Thursday to the Assembly with its own proposals to "accelerate economic deconfinement": reduced charges for businesses or lower VAT in catering. Measures revoked.
Unsurprisingly, the right-wing group saw its bills rejected one by one in the hemicycle and denounced the "sectarianism" of "walkers". LR mainly used this "parliamentary niche" to demand a "faster" recovery, with a "softened" health protocol, as requested by Medef on Tuesday.
"We must keep the barrier gestures, but the epidemic is receding and there is more protection like the masks. All of this shows us that we can speed up deconfinement," said the leader of the right-wing deputies Damien Abad, favorable. a reopening of restaurant rooms "from this weekend" in Ile-de-France.
The LRs notably defended the reduction of the VAT to 5.5% for hotels and restaurants until the end of 2020, a measure which, according to Mr. Abad, would make it possible to save "one job per restaurant".
But this provision is "not timely", according to the majority, which highlights the series of aid to the sector: partial unemployment until the end of September, support funds ...
The right has argued for a "drop in the cost of labor" with a proposal from Eric Woerth to transform partial unemployment into lower charges or from Guillaume Peltier to exempt from charges any hiring on permanent contracts of a young person under 25 years of age .
According to the majority, "old recipes", while the left denounced the "windfall effects" of this "supply policy".
Against these "piecemeal" measures, the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud defended "better targeted devices", "more demanding in terms of job retention" or the youth plan planned for early July.
The discussion was more sensitive in the evening on the skills of the communities. Supported by all the opposition, from the left to the far right, LR demanded "more flexibility" to authorize the departments to act in favor of small businesses and economic attractiveness, an area reserved for the regions.
Opposed to this text, the Minister of Territorial Cohesion Jacqueline Gourault claimed the logic of the regional "single window" to avoid duplication and "not to disperse" public money.
- "Long litany" -
Throughout the day, the right has generally criticized the majority for the "too brutal brake" on the economy and "a salvaged sector by sector recovery plan", with "patching up and sticking plasters".
But difficult to be heard when the government continues the announcements, including the new budget expected in late June in the hemicycle, with an additional effort of around 45 billion euros for the most affected sectors such as tourism (18 billion) or the automobile (8 billion).
Since the start of the crisis, total state support has amounted to 460 billion euros, including loans and guarantees.
The deputy LREM Cendra Motin criticizes at LR "a long litany of tax expenditures, without ever putting revenue in front", while on the bottom "3/4 of the measures" appear more or less "in PLFR 3", this third Amended budget presented Wednesday in the Council of Ministers.
While Emmanuel Macron will speak on Sunday evening on the crisis, the LRs are trying to embody a "credible and responsible" opposition, and to distinguish themselves from the "bidding" of the rebellious or Marine Le Pen, they repeat.
The party of Christian Jacob presented in early June a global recovery plan of 250 billion euros, incorporating some of the bills presented on Thursday, but also the sensitive subject of working time. The right wants "to allow, through company negotiations, to increase working time" on an annualized basis "and thus to increase wages".
Another idea, at the time of the return of the social right, the participation, of which LR wants to make profit "all the employees" with an objective of "10% of the remuneration". But that was not part of the texts defended Thursday, including a last proposal examined in the evening to remove the VAT on masks.
© 2020 AFP