The senators in turn embarked on the examination of the package of measures in favor of purchasing power. And already, this poses a headache, especially among the Republicans. This allows the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire to boast on Wednesday July 27 of having enlarged the presidential majority of 54 LR deputies, that is to say three quarters of the group.
>> Purchasing power law: LR senators set their conditions to validate the project
A favorable vote which he obtained after weeks of negotiations, to bring, first of all, the right to give up his plan for a fixed fuel price, at 1 euro 50 per liter, instead of a device where the state forfeited its tax revenues. Bercy and the right in the Assembly have therefore agreed on the 30 cents reduction at the pump for the months of September and October. The government was also convinced on the deconjugalization of the disabled adult allowance, which had been brought by LR parliamentarians during the previous legislature – rejected twice then, and accepted the third in this purchasing power text. Without forgetting the tax exemption for overtime, again demanded by LR: the government says yes.
In summary, the bill resulting from the debate in the Assembly has been partly rewritten by the right. It is difficult to see how this same right will be able to oppose it in the Senate. And yet the senators want to make their own music heard. The Senate wants for example to accentuate the device on overtime, also including exemptions for bosses. Bruno Retailleau, the boss of LR in the Senate, wants to review some rates for the revaluation of social minima so that solidarity income is not revalued more than that of work. He will obviously also put the issue of the debt back on the table.
But as much to say that on all these subjects, there is no difference in kind between the solutions proposed by the government and those defended by the senatorial right. There are, at most, differences on the amounts, on the method of calculation. Suffice to say that for the general public: we are on the thickness of the line. And then the right, all in its desire to differentiate itself from the National Rally which is eyeing its electorate, has chosen to embody a responsible opposition. So an opposition that discusses and does not block.
That doesn’t leave many options for the solemn vote that will happen in a few days. It will vote for this text on purchasing power, at least so as not to appear divided, so as not to suggest that the lines are different between the Assembly and the Senate. And it is to bet that we will then hear Bruno Le Maire boast of having enlarged the presidential majority of a hundred senators.
Are the Republicans trapped? Yes, in a way. And things will not work out at the start of the school year, since the two texts which will arrive in the hemicycle – immigration and unemployment insurance – are designed precisely to be voted on by the right. Then there will be the 2023 budget, carried by Bruno Le Maire, again him, with measures to reduce public spending… In short, in the next six, everything is done so that LR finds itself with its back to the wall. So that these elected officials vote, text after text, the reforms proposed by the executive. Which has not completely buried the more lasting idea of a government coalition. By agreement on the terms of office and not on a case-by-case basis. This may blur the Congress of Republicans, convened in December to appoint a new leadership. That the right survives this year will then be a miracle.