The day after the announcement of a “Tariff shield” against the surge in energy prices, oppositions continued to criticize Friday 1er October measures “Electoralists” from the Prime Minister, Jean Castex.
The increase in regulated electricity tariffs, which was expected to reach around 12% at the start of 2022, will be limited to 4% in 2022 thanks to a reduction in taxes. But the gas price freeze will come only after the 12.6% hike on Friday, and will last until April 2022, when “The price of gas should plummet”, according to the government, and at the time of the presidential election, criticizes the opposition.
The latter also deplores the fact that as of the spring, consumers will have to pay a little more for gas than market prices, so that the sums paid in addition during the winter by the operators without being able to bill them to the consumers are recovered.
The president of the group The Republicans in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, joked on Thursday evening on Twitter on the leading calendar “To the presidential elections”, while the candidate of France rebellious to the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, attacked the method: “You give him your watch and he gives you the time. You pay first, then you will pay the same again. “ For her part, Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the National Rally, estimated that “The French do not need electoral measures, but a real and lasting drop in the price of energy and gasoline! “.
“We would like to repaint our life in pink, but this is not the case”
Criticizing “The charlatanry” of the executive on Twitter, the Communist candidate (PCF), Fabien Roussel, then said ” angry ” on LCI, criticizing these “Lords locked in their castle at the Elysée”. He called to “Immediately reduce bills by 30% by removing taxes on gas and electricity”. “We would like to repaint our life in pink, but this is not the case”, reacted Thursday evening on the same channel the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, by calling on the Prime Minister to “Understand what it is for a modest household” to have to “Its increasingly high expenditure constraints”.
Favorable to “A price freeze”, the former socialist minister of productive recovery Arnaud Montebourg, also a presidential candidate, called on RTL on Friday for a “Lower taxes” by applying a 5.5% VAT on gas and electricity, which can be considered as “Basic necessities”, Where “At least consumer goods for survival”.
Ex-LRM ecologist Matthieu Orphelin urged ” go further “, by expanding the energy check “To 15 million households in years when energy prices are high”, and to “Accelerate” devices supporting the energy renovation of housing and the change of vehicle.
The annoyance was also palpable on the side of the unions on Friday morning. “The shield is a sleight of hand, we will reimburse it from the month of April”, reacted Yves Veyrier, the general secretary of the Force Ouvrière (FO) confederation, on France 2. “It was time to react, it remains a problem. We are proposing a reduction in VAT, because energy is a staple product ”, argued for his part the number one of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, on Public Senate.
A reduction in VAT was also favored by consumer defense associations, which were critical after Mr. Castex’s announcements. “We assume that this is a simple shift in spending, which would therefore be a very relative measure”, reacted the CLCV in a press release. “Globally on gas, the proposals remain rather vague, there are many unknowns”, also regrets Alain Bazot, president of UFC-Que Choisir. “We postpone the bill for consumers, the painful is for later, after the election deadline. This is not fooling anyone ”, he estimated.
www.lemonde.fr