The National Assembly adopted, on Friday July 22 in the early morning, in first reading the “emergency” bill for purchasing power after four days of debates under high tension between the majority and the oppositions . It does not provide for a salary increase but a series of measures including the revaluation of 4% of social assistance.
After four days of tense debates, the government text was validated at first reading by 341 votes for, 116 against and 21 abstentions at the end of a chaotic night, with the contribution of the votes of deputies Les Républicains and Rassemblement nation . These, welcoming certain measures ranging from “ in the right direction “, while the left denounced a text akin to a ” declaration of wage war “.
This text, which was a test for the presidential camp deprived of an absolute majority in the Assembly, is supposed to respond to inflation as well as to the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. It must now be supplemented by an amending finance bill (PLFR), the examination of which begins this Friday at 3 p.m. with, on the menu, highly contested measures such as the abolition of the audiovisual license fee.
Fight against inflation
The project adopted by the Assembly provides for a series of measures including the tripling of up to 6,000 euros in the tax-free premiums that companies can pay to their employees, a measure fought throughout the week by the Nupes which is calling for increases in wages and in particular the minimum wage. MEPs also increased retirement pensions and several allowances (family, social minima) by 4% with retroactive effect from July 1, 2022, without waiting for the date of automatic annual revaluation.
Rare moment of harmony on Wednesday evening, the Assembly voted almost unanimously to deconjugalize the disabled adult allowance (AAH)a method of calculation that does not take into account the income of the spouse, a measure to which the executive had opposed during the last legislature.
Responding to the energy crisis
Finally, the text also provides for various measures to deal with the risks of energy shortages which electrified the debates on Thursday night: it facilitates the imminent restart of coal-fired power stations and creates a derogatory regime to accelerate the supply of gas from a floating LNG terminal, which could see an influx of American shale gas. In a climate of very high tension, the left united against these provisions. suicidal on the climate level, while the far right attacked the ” green ayatollahs “.