Bruno Retailleau, Senator (LR) from Vendée and president of the Les Républicains party, was the guest on the 4 V show on France 2 this Wednesday, April 15.
France Télévisions: On Tuesday, April 14, the government seemed to be opening the way to a general aid for motorists by cutting into the margins of distributors. Is this a step in the right direction? Is it a good measure?
Bruno Retailleau, Senator (LR) from Vendée and president of the Les Républicains party: I think that this measure will have no consequences for two reasons. First, the famous decree to regulate margins has not been implemented yet. I don’t even know if it will ever be implemented. And if it were, the variation would be so small that it would only amount to a few hundred. I have two proposals that I have already made. We need to use the surplus of taxes resulting from the rise in fuel prices to truly help the professional sectors that need it so that our production system can withstand.
That has already been done.
Only partially done. And the second proposal that I make: we have energy savings certificates. How does that work? We impose a kind of tax on energy producers who finance energy savings to try to discourage people from buying too much oil. But here, there is no need to create tax increases. But they will increase by several billion. So stop. The French people realize for themselves that it is very expensive. In fact, there is a decrease in consumption.
Is the government right not to take general, universal measures that would weigh on the state budget?
That is why I have always denounced, for example, the proposal of the Rassemblement National to lower the VAT because it would cost over a billion euros per month and there is no money left in the coffers, and one day we will have a financial crisis. And when there is a financial crisis, as we saw in Greece, it is always the weakest and most modest who are affected: retirees, civil servants, and those with low purchasing power.
Are fuel prices too high for everyone, can it trigger social unrest like the yellow vests?
Certainly.
The government is right not to take general measures, but there is still a risk of social unrest.
Of course. Why? It is because Emmanuel Macron’s bad policies, for almost 10 years, have impoverished the French people. We learned a few months ago, that while we were at the top a few years ago, especially compared to the European average, we are now below the European average. The Italians, it never happened in a hundred years, have surpassed us in terms of standard of living. The purchasing power of the French people is even more important as France is sliding down and the French people are getting poorer. This is the result of bad policies for years.
[Context: The interview covers topics such as government measures, economic proposals, social unrest, and political views. Fact Check: The interview took place on France 2’s 4 V show with Bruno Retailleau discussing various political and economic issues.]
