A week after the deputies, the Senate gave the green light to the bill “on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power”.
The Senate with a right-wing majority adopted this Friday evening at first reading the “emergency” bill in favor of purchasing power after having amended it.
The text was voted on by a show of hands, thanks in particular to the votes of the LR, centrist and RDPI groups with the majority En Marche. It provides for a series of measures ranging from the revaluation of pensions to the deconjugalization of the disabled adult allowance through the tripling of the ceiling of the “Macron bonus”.
From Monday, the senators will embark on the amending budget (PLFR) for 2022, the hypothesis of a tax on “superprofits”, carried in particular by the centrists, risking to strain the debates.
Final adoption on August 7 at the latest
The same day, deputies and senators will meet in a joint committee to try to agree on a common version of the purchasing power bill, the government expecting a final adoption of the two texts no later than August 7.
“Things are not written in advance”, warned Philippe Mouiller (LR), stressing that the Senate would have “red lines”.
The first text is calibrated at 20.7 billion by Bruno Le Maire, the second opens 44 billion euros in credits, including 9.7 to finance the 100% renationalization of EDF.
“Inflation remains our number one concern. But we anticipate a drop” in 2023, declared Bruno Le Maire after the Council of Ministers, while INSEE published this Friday a first estimate for July of the consumer price index (+6.1% over one year after +5.8% in June).
Boost for traders
The Senate has given, with the support of the government, a boost to traders. It adopted an amendment by former minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (RDPI) to cap the rise in commercial rents for SMEs at 3.5% for one year.
The senators had previously approved the “rent shield” for individuals which also provides for a cap at 3.5% from July 2022 to June 2023.
The Senate voted to continue the “Macron bonus” until December 31, 2023, with a ceiling raised to 3,000 euros or 6,000 euros in the event of a profit-sharing agreement. But it reserved only for companies with less than 50 employees the perpetuation, from 2024, of a premium exempt from social security contributions.
“Valuing work”
Despite a lively debate on the revaluation of the RSA, it also recorded a 4% increase in retirement pensions and several allowances (family, social minima) with retroactive effect from July 1, 2022, as well as the deconjugalization of the disabled adult allowance. (AAH).
To “enhance work”, the senators have also created a reduction in employer contributions, for overtime, provided for the possibility of early release of employee savings and relaxed the rules for the use of meal vouchers.
A bill on the upcoming energy transition
On the energy side, several senators stressed the need to better “anticipate”. “Let’s be attentive to our decisions, the energy transition is no longer understood by our fellow citizens”, warned René-Paul Savary (LR), at the time, he said, when Emmanuel Macron made “soft eyes to the “Saudi heir” Prince Mohammed bin Salman to “import his oil”.
The Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher mentioned for the October parliamentary “back to school” the bill “accelerating the energy transition”, mentioned for several weeks to simplify the development of renewable, wind and solar energies. . “A priori the Senate would be the first” to examine it, she slipped.
Via an amendment by the socialist Franck Montaugé, the senators limited the duration of the exceptional measures for the supply of gas to France to two years instead of five, against the will of the government.
“Voting responsibly”
They also voted for an amendment by the leader of senators LR Bruno Retailleau asking the government for a report “aiming to put in place”, via a smart box, a voluntary and remunerated device for reducing electricity consumption for individuals.
Ecologist groups and CRCE with a communist majority voted against the text, which according to Fabien Gay (CRCE) can “be summed up by the word avoidance”, in particular “so that the salary increase does not come on the table”.
The Socialists abstained “to tell the French ‘you can count on us to defend you'”, said their leader Patrick Kanner. “We must vote responsibly”, pleaded the centrist Jean-Pierre Moga, for whom “supporting our most modest fellow citizens is a necessity as much as an imperative”.