Macron’s aid plan to govern France “in a war economy”

“France and the European Union have entered a war economy.” The phrase is from Emmanuel Macron, a couple of weeks ago. Inflation plagues the French country, like the other European partners and, after having won the elections, but losing the absolute majority, Macron prepares to pass the purchasing power law which aims to alleviate some of the effects of the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

The key points of the law refer to the revaluation of social benefits and basic pensions. Family benefits (family allowances, childcare allowance, family supplement, family support allowance), social minimums (solidarity active income, allowance for disabled adults, solidarity allowance for the elderly) should benefit from a revaluation of 4 %, with retroactive effect from July 1.

Some of these benefits having benefited from an increase of 1.8% in April 2022, their amount would then be revalued by 5.8% in the year, enough to deal with the country’s inflation, which is estimated to be at 5.5% in 2022 as a whole. Basic retirement pensions should also be increased by 4%. being that they had already been revalued by 1.1% in January 2022, swould suppose an increase of 5.1% in the year as a whole.

[Macron mantiene a sus pesos pesados en los ministerios clave en la remodelación de Gobierno]

In addition to these measures, the discount of 18 cents per liter of fuel could be extended until the end of the year, as well as the transportation bonus paid to employees who live outside an urban area and to those whose work schedule does not allow them to use public transportation.

The rate shield on energy and cap on regulated natural gas priceswhich ended on June 30, 2022, will be extended until the end of 2022. The same applies to the regulated price of electricity, whose increase must not exceed 4% until the end of the year.

The law, which will be presented to the Council of Ministers in the coming days, also includes a section on “energy sovereignty” that grants the State full power to exploit the gas infrastructures this winter in the event of a supply crisis and provides for the requisition of gas plants and the forced filling of storage facilities.