Purchasing power: battle in sight between the macronies and the oppositions in this week’s Assembly

Summer flagship project, the government’s package of measures in favor of purchasing power arrives this Monday at the National Assembly, where the opposition will compete with proposals in the face of accelerating inflation. The bill, which consists of 20 articles, is studied in first reading until Thursday. The deputies have presented more than a thousand amendments.

Among the main measures of the Government are the early revaluations of 4% of retirement pensions and social benefits, a 3.5% increase in the salary of civil servants, a conditioned food check of 100 euros, to which will add 50 euros per child.

Twenty items to vote

There is also the expansion of the fuel discount of 18 cents and the energy tariff shield, the suppression of the audiovisual canon or even the tripling of the Macron bonus (tax-free and desocialized).

Final approval of the text, after a toast with the Senate, is scheduled for August 7, if the government’s plan goes as planned. Because in the absence of an absolute majority, the game promises to be difficult for the Macronists if they want to preserve the financial “balances”.

New victories for the opposition?

Last week, the Government suffered a first setback with the health bill, adopted but amputated from a key article on the possible return of an anti-Covid health pass for entries to France. LR, LFI and RN MPs voted overwhelmingly against this measure. Therefore, the same scenario could play out again during the week and see action taken against the government’s advice.

The Republicans advocate in particular a “lower fuel price of 1.5 euros per litre”, while the National Group advocates a reduction in VAT on energy prices. The left-wing alliance Nupes will decline its own “social emergency” text in amendments, with the rise of the Smic to 1,500 euros or the taxation of the “super-benefits” of the large groups.

The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, lambastes this “financial madness” of the opposition with “his 100,000 million euros of proposals”. However, he reached out to Republicans and said he was open to a larger overtime tax break.

However, certain measures should be the subject of a broad consensus. This is the case of the de-conjugalization of the allowance for disabled adults (AAH), that is, without taking into account the income of the spouse.