Fuel aid: the government will “change scale” to “adapt” its systems

Sébastien Lecornu recognized that the fuel situation was “particularly difficult and serious” due to the war in the Middle East.

As the surge in fuel prices continues, Sébastien Lecornu promises to “adapt” the aid. The government will speak “at the beginning of next week” to “change scale” in its measures to support economic activity, the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday.

“We can maintain this course” of targeted aid “but from now on (…), we will have to change in scope and scale”. “And therefore the government will have to speak again (…) at the beginning of next week to adapt all the measures to support activity and the economy,” affirmed the head of government before the National Assembly, in response to a question from the leader of the MoDem group Marc Fesneau.

Sébastien Lecornu recognized that the fuel situation was “particularly difficult and serious” due to the war in the Middle East.

“The negotiations are not succeeding and we are not far from a risk of resumption of fighting,” the Prime Minister also told the deputies. The United States began an operation on Monday aimed at protecting certain ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil and gas usually transits.

Aid for “modest workers and heavy commuters”

At the end of April, the government introduced a fuel allowance of 50 euros intended for three million “low-income, heavy-duty workers”. It is intended for workers whose reference tax income per share is less than or equal to 16,880 euros, and who travel “more than 15 km per journey and per day between their home and their place of work or more than 8,000 km per year as part of their professional activity (this condition including home-work journeys)”, specifies the decree published in the Official Journal on May 2.

The executive had also extended and expanded targeted aid intended for fishermen, farmers, the construction sector and even taxis and VTCs.

The cost of this aid reached 180 million euros for the month of May, detailed the Minister of Public Accounts, David Amiel.