The match now seems folded. The senators however scrapped for a long time on Wednesday evening around the serious financial difficulties of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), combined with a deterioration in Parisian transport.
Claimed on the left and proposed by Senator (LR) Philippe Tabarot, the increase in the mobility payment, a tax on the payroll of companies with more than 11 employees, finally divided the senatorial majority on the right. And the counter won. This additional revenue of 180 million euros might have enabled Valerie Pécresse (LR), President of IDFM, to limit the increase of the Navigo pass to 80 euros. But this track seems to be getting further and further away and it is now a 90 euro subscription that is looming.
“What I regret is that it feels like the state is elsewhere”
The setback is all the harder for the former presidential candidate since it was the senators of his own party who voted very largely once morest (116 once morest, 28 for). Including elected officials from Île-de-France, such as Christine Lavarde (LR) or Philippe Pemezec (LR) from Hauts-de-Seine, Daphné Ract-Madoux (LR) from Essonne, Philippe Dominati (LR) from Paris. Not to mention the centrists, chief among them Hervé Marseille, also mayor of Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine), also numerous to oppose the measure.
In the dock, the government. “What I regret in all of this is that we have the impression that the State is elsewhere”, declared Roger Karoutchi (LR), who voted for and who wishes that part of the repayable advances granted in the face of Covid-19 at IDFM are transformed into endowments.
“Let’s beware of simplistic solutions”, warned Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Accounts and former municipal councilor and deputy of Hauts-de-Seine, for whom “there is no magic solution”. “Discussions will continue at the level of the Prime Minister and ministers,” he said.
Decision in December
“In the hemicycle, we were almost all in favor. If we had voted by show of hands, it would have passed, regrets Philippe Tabarot, on the phone, this Thursday morning. But the senatorial majority took out the public ballot to derail the vote”, a weapon which consists in also making the absentees vote and rather used when the group is a minority. “This time they used it once morest an amendment from their own party. Which is not very elegant, ”regrets the senator from the Alpes-Maritimes.
Abandoned by the Senate, the proposal to increase the mobility payment will therefore not be presented to deputies. There is also little chance that it will be retained by the government. Gabriel Attal, former Ile-de-France deputy, having declared himself firmly opposed to it. The measure should therefore not be included in the 2023 finance law. “It is the senators opposed to the amendment who will be responsible for the explosion in the price”, accuses Philippe Tabarot. The amount of the Navigo pass increase should be decided at the next board meeting of Île-de-France Mobilités, on December 7.
Hit by inflation and the effects of the long Covid-19 crisis, the transport authority is facing an unprecedented funding crisis. Of the 10.6 billion annual budget, 950 million euros are still missing. The communities (Region, departments and Paris) have made an effort of 100 million (+ 7.5%). But the government has not given a favorable outcome to Valérie Pécresse’s various requests for support, such as the cancellation of the “Covid debt” of 2 billion euros, or the lowering of VAT to 5.5%, which would bring in around 150 million euros.
The vote of the senate aroused many reactions. “In the Senate, the macronie AND the right of Valérie Pécresse rejected the increase in the mobility payment ceiling. Results ? The price of the Navigo pass is quite simply in danger of exploding! It’s just a shame, ”tweeted David Belliard (EELV), the transport assistant in Paris. “Users are good pupils of the environment. They should be encouraged and not discouraged. How to understand that other resources are not mobilized, while at the same time, the State is able to finance fossil fuels, fuels among others, in a massive way to face the crisis of purchasing power? asks the association La Vignette du Respect.
