For them, the “string” is a little big. Grant 15 euro cents discount on the price of a liter of petrol, from 1is April, is an electoral measure, judged several representatives of the oppositions, Sunday March 13, following the announcement made the day before by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, in The Parisian.
“The state returns the money from the increase in gasoline, that’s what I asked for, commented Valérie Pécresse in “Le Grand Rendez-vous” of Europe 1, The echoes and CNews. The only question I ask myself is why at 1is April, why not now since it is now that the French can no longer move? » And the Republican presidential candidate to answer herself: ” 1is April is ten days before the election. »
“I don’t know if these 15 cents represent exactly all the gains the state has made, maybe not all the gains, so I would have preferred the Prime Minister to tell us: I’m giving all the money back to the French “she added.
By announcing this discount at the pump for four months for all French people on Saturday, Jean Castex assured that this was the case. The measure will cost the State around 2 billion euros, and, according to the Prime Minister, “over the first half of 2022, and if prices remain at this level, tax revenues on fuels would increase by less than 2 billion euros”.
“I can’t let it be said that the state is filling its pockets. It’s clearly the opposite.”he assured, also insisting on “the 20 billion euros devoted, since last October, to the protection of the purchasing power of the French”.
“Derisory” measure
“As by chance, it would be ten days before the first round of the presidential election, the government is giving us an electoral discount”, denounced on Franceinfo National Rally (RN) spokesperson Julien Odoul. According to him, the measure is also “ridiculous because 15 cents per liter does not even come down to the tax increases that were decided by Emmanuel Macron, which were around 19 cents per litre”.
“Obviously, this is not commensurate with the gravity of the situation today and perhaps tomorrow. We must lower the VAT on energy in a general way (…), from 20% to 5.5%”, added Marine Le Pen, the RN candidate for the Elysee Palace, on BFM-TV. “The government is giving us something for 15 cents, it may seem like a provocation”, also estimated the leader of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, Philippe Poutou, on the same channel.
For the campaign director of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France insoumise), Manuel Bompard, “it’s better than no reduction at all, of course, but it’s very largely insufficient and it’s not the right method”. It’s necessary “go towards a price blocking measure, to bring the price back to the price it was at before the start of the crisis, around 1.40 euro per litre, and to involve gas and electricity distributors and fuel distributors”, he added on RMC.
“Voting slip and gas tickets”
“Jean Castex is waking up a little late, this measure will not be sufficient and above all not fast enough, regretted on France 3 the socialist candidate, Anne Hidalgo. There is still a little clientelist and electoralist side since we are told that, when you go to pay, you will have a small mention explaining to you how much the government has given you a gift. Why not confuse ballot papers with gas tickets? »
For the candidate of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, the government might have taken such a measure “much sooner”. “It’s easy to blame everything on the war” and Ukraine, he estimated on Radio J, while “the prices were already high before”. According to him, “There is first of all an enormous responsibility on the part of the speculators – the oil companies, the shareholders, the investment funds – who are betting on war, betting on the rise in the price of oil and who speculate on it”.
