The government will bring together fuel distributors on Tuesday to ask them for “an effort of solidarity”, in particular to extend sales operations at cost price, Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher declared on Saturday. “I will bring together TotalEnergies and the other distributors next Tuesday. “I am asking them to make an effort of solidarity,” said the Minister of Energy Transition on France Inter, while gasoline prices have sometimes risen above the 2 euros per liter mark.
“Certain distributors have carried out operations at cost price (…) and I will ask them to extend this type of operation because I think that the French do not have the space to pay more for fuel and that this does not is not the kind of subject on which these actors must make a significant margin, ”added Agnès Pannier-Runacher. In the midst of a rise in oil prices, supported by voluntary production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire on Thursday asked the main distributor, TotalEnergies, to extend beyond December 31, 2023 its capping of all fuels at 1.99 euros per litre.
Bruno Le Maire also opposed the idea of a tax rebate, deemed “not responsible” budgetarily. “What is driving up the French’s bill? These are fossil fuels. What is disrupting the climate? These are fossil fuels. So there is an urgent need to move away from fossil fuels,” Agnès Pannier-Runacher then declared. Conversely, 10,000 km in an electric car represents “1000 euros of fuel savings”, underlined the minister, while admitting that the purchase of these vehicles remains “too expensive”.
“With the ecological bonus, the scrappage bonus, we are working to lower the price of access to the electric car and I want to further strengthen the ecological bonus so that households with average incomes can afford this car,” he said. she added. The minister also cited the planned implementation of “leasing at 100 euros (…) per month”, without however announcing details on the timetable for this complex measure, a campaign promise from President Emmanuel Macron.
