French MPs poised to approve €20bn inflation relief package
French lawmakers are to definitively adopt a range of new measures to help struggling households cope with rising energy and food prices, as well as an updated budget that will pay for France to renationalise the electricity company EDF.
The final vote on Thursday is a formality and follows weeks of heated debate and negotiations at the national assembly, where the French president, Emmanuel Macron, no longer has an absolute majority.
The package features €20bn in inflation relief – including pension rises and a cap on rent increases – and had been promised by Macron as growing inflation erodes wages.
Ministers argued that France had already been the most generous in Europe in helping households cope with the cost of living crisis – including by capping gas and power price increases, which allowed it to cushion the inflation rise better than its neighbours. Annual inflation for the 19 eurozone countries has reached a record 8.6%, followed by a huge increase in food and energy costs affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But in France, annual inflation is estimated to be lower – running at about 6.5%.
Macron’s centrist grouping suffered big losses in legislative elections in June, winning the most seats in the national assembly but falling about 40 seats short of the absolute majority needed to pass laws.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, meanwhile, greatly increased its seats to become the biggest single opposition party. The hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party also increased its seats and is now the biggest leftwing party in a broad coalition known as the Nupes, which includes the Socialists and Greens.
The cost of living measures were the first test of Macron’s ability to strike cross-party
Read more on theguardian.com
