Threatened with being overthrown in Parliament, the government gave in. Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced this Thursday, November 28, in an interview with Figaro, that he was “not going to increase taxes on electricity” as initially planned in the draft budget for 2025, acceding to one of the requests, notably from the National Rally, so as not to censor the government.
“I have decided not to increase taxes on electricity in the 2025 finance bill”, “this will allow a reduction in electricity prices of 14%, which will therefore go well beyond the reduction 9% initially planned,” said the Prime Minister. “Whether it was in my majority or the opposition leaders that I received: almost all of them asked me to evolve,” he explains.
The abandonment of the increase in taxes on electricity already appears in the draft budget for 2025 as currently examined by the Senate, via two identical amendments, from the LR budget rapporteur Jean-François Husson and the socialist group, adopted during the week. The Senate also voted on Tuesday evening, against the advice of the government, to partially compensate for this decline, a more measured increase in the gas tax, estimated at around one billion.
“We are changing the text”
“When the government says that a text can be improved and that we are listening to Parliament, that is the case and therefore we are making the text evolve,” Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin reacted from the Senate.
The government initially wanted to raise electricity taxes to a higher level than that which prevailed before the tariff shield against inflation, to raise 3.4 billion euros. But he had opened the door to “concessions”. In another gesture, this time towards the Macronists who want at all costs to preserve the reductions in charges for businesses, Michel Barnier confirmed this Thursday that they would not be reduced to 2.25 SMIC.
The government of Michel Barnier is gambling for its survival in the face of the motion of censure that the National Rally threatens to vote with the left, perhaps as early as next week on the Social Security budget, failing to obtain commitments in favor of power purchase of the French, of which the far-right party has set itself up as guarantor.
Until now, Marine Le Pen had considered the government concessions insufficient. His reaction to the decision on electricity will therefore be closely scrutinized. On ” and “medication dereimbursements”.