COUP DE POUCE Deputies and senators will now try to agree on a common version of the text in a joint committee
Deputies and senators will now try to agree on a common version of the text in a joint committee. (Illustration) — NICOLAS MESSYASZ/SIPA
The Senate dominated by the right-wing opposition voted Wednesday at first reading, after the National Assembly, alterations to the 2022 budget, with an anti-inflation extension of 2.5 billion euros to finance in particular an exceptional energy check. The vote on this second amending finance bill (PLFR), after a few modifications, was approved. won by 251 votes against 28.
Deputies and senators will now try to agree on a common version of the text in a joint committee.
A chè ;that energy for 12 million households
This PLFR “is part of the continuity of the purchasing power package” voted this summer, said the minister in charge of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal. It “makes it possible to ensure the financing of measures that will change the daily life of the French people while proceeding to a certain number of adjustments in a very classic logic of end of management”.
The text proposes “an extension of 2.5 billion euros”, including 1.8 billion euros to finance an exceptional energy check for 12 million households. And exceptional aid of 230 million euros to correct the “blind spot” households heating with wood, whether logs or pellets. An envelope of 440 million euros is to finance the two-week extension of the fuel rebate of 30 centimes per liter.
This amending budget still contains measures to support universities faced with the rise in energy prices and the armies in the face of that of fuel.
Other amendments voted
The Senate adopted a government amendment degrading for 2022 the forecast of the public deficit which would stand at -5.0% of GDP, compared to -4.9% in the initial text tabled; to the National Assembly. Mr. Attal, however, indicated that that this return to 5% could only be “temporary”, as the state hopes to recover funds owed by unsettled energy companies.
The senators also adopted, against the advice of the government, several amendments by the general rapporteur Jean-François Husson (LR). One aims to allocate more resources to the needs of local authorities for carrying out road works.
Another allocates 100 million euros in loans to the renovation of water networks. Senators also voted a centrist amendment increasing the credits dedicated to France Services houses.