In a newspaper interview The Parisian published on Saturday August 27, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne assures that the most fragile households will continue to be helped. She promises not to not let energy prices explode “.
” The French can be reassured, we will amortize the increases “, asserted Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, while prices exploded on the wholesale markets, reaching more than 1,000 euros per megawatt/hour (MWh), compared to around 85 euros per MWh a year ago. Since the fall, the government has imposed a gas price freeze and a 4% cap on electricity price increases. Once this ” tariff shield “, end of 2022, “ we will keep devices to cushion energy prices “, assured Ms. Borne. ” And we will take specific measures to support the most vulnerable “, she continued in an interview with the Parisian/Today in France.
Saturday evening, during a majority rally in Metz, Elisabeth Borne defended the government’s environmental policy in the face of attacks from the left-wing opposition. “ Should our ambition for ecology be reduced to stopping watering golf courses or banning private swimming pools? she launched. This course, we do not lose sight of it. Some want to make us deviate from it by systematic polemics, they will not succeed. By lying, they will not destabilize us. By the ease of hackneyed solutions, they will not deceive the French. We will refuse immobility because we are determined, because we know where we are going, because our project is clear, because the French people in our country are capable of making the most of the changes to come. »
Open to a taxation of “ great profit »
The head of government announced that she does not “ don’t close the door ” to one taxation of ” great profit » businesses that benefit from higher energy prices.
A little earlier, the boss of the socialists Olivier Faure had announced his intention to propose to the union of the left to mobilize to organize a referendum of popular initiative so that the French decide on the question. “ The incredible record profits made by the CAC 40 obviously deserve to be taxed because what they don’t pay are the French men and women who will pay for it on the climate issue, on their purchasing power , he underlined from the summer universities of the PS in Blois. You saw what happened with Total, which grants rebates that are infinitesimal compared to what Total’s profits are today. We’re not here to beg, we’re here to say: you’re the ones who mainly benefited from the current system, so you must also be the ones who mainly contribute to changing it, because climate resilience doesn’t will not happen without cost. »
49-3 on the budget?
Elisabeth Borne indicated that she did not rule out using article 49-3 to pass her texts without a vote in the Assembly for the budget in the fall. ” We will advise because the French did not ask us to stand still “, replied the Prime Minister, questioned on the hypothesis of a 49-3 on the occasion of the finance bill (PLF). ” I will put all my energy into finding compromises in the Republican arc, as requested by the President of the Republic. I have no doubts that on some benches, we will remain in systematic obstruction, as we saw during the extraordinary session “, developed Ms. Borne. ” I am also aware that, for an opposition group, it is symbolic to vote for a budget. But if necessary, there are tools in the Constitution to be able to move forward “, she added.