In the absence of sugar, the subject does not lack salt for the “central block.” Within the framework of the examination of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2025 in a public session in the National Assembly, which began on Monday, October 28, the Democratic Movement (MoDem) fights to establish a sugar tax .
On Sunday, the Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, belonging to François Bayrou’s party, gave an interview to Sunday’s Tribune to support the initiative, before 20 deputies from the MoDem group signed a platform the next day, in Opinionto ask to reinforce the “soda tax” and extend it to ultra-processed foods.
If the initiative is supported by the left, a new crack opens in the central bloc, where the Ensemble pour la République (EPR) group, which brings together the deputies of the Renaissance, is firmly opposed to its partner’s project. “We believe that this affects the purchasing power of the most disadvantaged”justifies the vice president of the Macronist group, Stéphanie Rist, who opposes new taxes on alcoholic beverages for the same reasons. Horizontes also took up these arguments, although the president of the Social Affairs Commission, among its ranks, the former Minister of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, presented an amendment that took up a MoDem proposal.
“Negative signal”
Following the examination of the finance bill for 2025, which has already highlighted the divergences between the different partners of the former majority, it is up to the PLFSS to highlight them. The most delicate issue, however, could be the reductions in employer contributions. The Government proposes to distribute them in another way and, above all, eliminate them for the lowest salaries, in order to save (estimated at 4 billion euros), allowing at the same time “demicardize”according to Matignon. According to the government, this review aims to encourage companies to increase salaries between 1 and 1.3 minimum wage.
But the Macronist deputies oppose this measure, criticized by the employers, as do the Republicans and the National Group. On October 22, during the PLFSS committee examination, Gabriel Attal’s troops managed to pass an amendment to delete the article in question. Instead, the EPR group proposes an alternative distribution of burden reductions, to exempt itself from any elimination of employer exemptions at the minimum wage level.
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