2023-09-05 07:03:49
Posted Sep 4, 2023, 6:36 PMUpdated on Sep 5, 2023 at 9:03 am
This is a new hot topic for the already delicate 2024 budget. The question of the financial means allocated to food aid promises to be invited into the debates in Parliament on the future finance bill (PLF) in the fall. , at a time when the Restos du Coeur are going through an unprecedented financial crisis.
For now, the urgency is to put out the fire. Sunday, Patrice Douret, the president of the association founded in 1985 by Coluche, had launched a cry of alarm on the situation of the latter, evoking a hole of 35 million to complete the annual budget which must be closed in May, and alarmed by a possible closure within three years if nothing was done. Blame it on inflation, which both pushes an increased number of people into precariousness and significantly increases the cost of the products distributed by associations.
First effort of the state
Sunday evening, the Minister of Solidarity, Aurore Bergé, announced a first effort of 15 million euros from the State to get out of this rut. She also called on private players to also mobilize, which Intermarché, Carrefour have already promised to do, and, this Monday, Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH (owner of the “Les Echos” group) with a donation of 10 million quickly relayed by the minister. Aurore Bergé will even go this Tuesday with Antoine Arnault, eldest son of Bernard Arnault, to the premises of the association to make this gesture a reality.
But the subject should remain on the table for some time yet. The president of the Restos du Coeur is to be received this week by Aurore Bergé and Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Finance, to find a lasting solution to the financial problems. The aid of 15 million was deemed insufficient by the association. And this, especially since a large part (around 10 million) was already being negotiated as part of the new fund for new food solidarity of 60 million euros, set up in the 2023 budget to replace to the food voucher project once promised by Emmanuel Macron.
“We want to look at their financial situation with the Restos du Coeur managers, and in particular to ensure that they have received all the aid to which they are entitled”, we explain at Bercy, while the budgetary piping for the Food aid can be complex. “We will also look at whether there is a subject of lack of financial means”, we add.
Cumbersome procedures
In fact, the budgetary appropriations allocated by the State to food aid are likely to be fiercely discussed in the fall for the PLF 2024. Last year, the government had agreed to an extension of 40 million requested by Parliament , to increase the overall envelope to 156 million – for national aid alone, to which must be added nearly 120 million in European funds. These 156 million represent more than double the approximately 60 million decided for 2021.
“There has been progress, it is undeniable, but not up to the acceleration of social degradation”, estimates the PCF senator from the North Eric Bocquet, author of a report on food aid with the senator LR Arnaud Bazin.
The latter, elected from Val-d’Oise, underlines that “the State took a little time to react because the risk of additional needs for food associations due to inflation – which affects food prices but also the cost logistics or food preservation – had been an alert point for a year”. “We must also be flexible in the use of the 60 million from the new fund for food solidarity”, specifies the senator.
The latter agrees, however, that it is not all a matter of means: the cumbersome procedures for receiving European aid are a problem, while the tensions on the agricultural markets have also caused the cancellation of several markets, depriving the associations of certain foodstuffs.
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