Electricity, AME, pensions… Michel Barnier’s concessions to the RN to avoid censorship from his government

To try to escape censorship, the government is increasing concessions on its budget for 2025. Because the National Rally still threatens to overthrow him if Michel Barnier and his team do not respond to his others by Monday “red lines”, Marine Le Pen said on Thursday.

At this stage, the RN will vote on a motion of censure, assured the vice-president of the RN, Sébastien Chenu. “We’re not thinking of giving him a gift.”he warned Friday November 29 on franceinfo, describing the government concessions as “bricolage”.

Electricity tax will not be increased

“I have decided not to increase taxes on electricity”announced the Prime Minister on Thursday Figaro. These will indeed increase in 2025, but only to return to the level “before the tariff shield” implemented in 2021, and not beyond as envisaged by the government. “This will allow a reduction in electricity prices of 14%, which will therefore go well beyond the 9% reduction initially planned”detailed Michel Barnier.

The government was counting on the initially planned increase in domestic tax on final electricity consumption (TICFE) to recover 3.4 billion euros. Its removal was one of the RN's demands to defend purchasing power. “You can already cross measurement off our list, it’s a promising start,” Marine Le Pen's entourage rejoiced on Thursday, quoted by Les Echos.

Invited Friday morning on France 2, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon, however, refused to see it as a gift to the far right: “This is a request that was made by almost all of the groups in the National Assembly”she defended, adding that the deputies of the Ensemble pour la République group “had tabled amendments to move towards measures in this direction”.

“The purchasing power of the French is a cause which is supported not only by the National Rally but by all the deputies”, she concluded.

State medical aid will be reduced “significantly”

Michel Barnier declared on Thursday that he wanted “significantly” reduce the care covered by state medical aid (AME), to which undocumented people are entitled. The Prime Minister, who declared in September that there was no question on this issue “is a totem, is a taboo”specified that there would be a reform of the AME from next year, in order to“avoid abuse and misappropriation”, thus acceding to one of the constant demands of the far right and part of the right in matters of immigration.

“Demagogic remarks”, estimated the advocacy referent for access to health rights at Médecins du monde, Matthias Thibeaud. “People under AME do not have access to a certain number of treatments, such as dental, optical, hearing care, where there are such high out-of-pocket costs that it prevents them from having access to them,” he insisted, in reference to the declarations of elected officials of the RN on the installation of gastric bands or even operations to have the ears glued back together (which represented 0.001% of the AME budget in 2023, France Inter calculated).

“When we ask the French for efforts, it is normal that we reduce the AME”, justified Maud Bregeon on France 2. “The best structural way to reduce the AME is to reduce illegal immigration in France. Now, can we, in the meantime, reduce the care package as it exists in France? The answer is yes”, she continued.

Reductions in charges for businesses will be (partly) preserved

It is a gesture towards the deputies of the National Rally, but also the Macronist deputies of Ensemble pour la République. Under pressure from both parties, anxious not to see the cost of labor increase and not to increase the contribution of companies to the collective effort, Michel Barnier confirmed on Thursday that the reductions in charges for the latter would not be reduced for salaries up to 2.25 minimum wage. A decision taken after “heard the representatives of the companies concerned”declared the Prime Minister, after senators and deputies reached an agreement on this point Wednesday evening in the joint committee.

By letting go of ballast on this subject, the government will be able to count on a saving of 1.6 billion euros, against the 4 billion originally planned, to be borne by employers, as announced by the deputies and senators at the resulting from the joint committee, Wednesday evening.

Despite everything, “it’s always no”reacted to Les Echos the deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy, deputy president of the RN group in the National Assembly. And for good reason, the RN group in the Assembly had already made it known in a press release that it considered that “the version of the Social Security finance bill resulting from the joint committee is not acceptable as it stands”, continuing to call for the maintenance of reductions in charges for VSE-SMEs.

A compromise on retirement pensions, unsatisfactory for the RN

On another burning issue, that of pensions, the RN was also not satisfied with the concessions obtained. While the government planned to postpone the 1.8% increase in basic pensions by six months, to July 1, 2025, the amendment adopted by the joint committee proposes an increase in pensions of 0.8% on January 1, before a supplement allowing an overall revaluation of 1.6% in July for retirees whose total pensions (basic and supplementary) do not exceed 1,500 euros gross.

Not enough for Gaëtan Dussausaye, spokesperson for the RN group in the National Assembly. “We have a certain number of requirements which have been known since the start of the budget”, he said on Friday on France Inter. For the Vosges deputy, “there is still this deeply unfair deindexation of retirement pensions in relation to inflation”, he noted, adding that “the government has[vait] still the possibility of amending” the text by Monday.