The Senate voted overnight from Monday to Tuesday, as part of measures to support purchasing power, the abolition of the TV license fee, after a lively debate on the financing and independence of the audiovisual sector. audience.
The Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak announced on this occasion "the government's desire to propose the one-year extension of the contracts of objectives and means of the public audiovisual companies".
This in order “to take the time necessary to build together the roadmap for public broadcasting”.
The vote was won by 196 votes against 147, during the examination at first reading of the amending finance bill for 2022.
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Amounting to 138 euros in mainland France and 88 euros overseas this year, the fee brought in 3.2 billion euros out of the 3.8 billion paid to public broadcasting.
Its removal is a campaign promise from re-elected candidate Emmanuel Macron.
The text plans to allocate to public broadcasting “a fraction” of VAT, for an amount of approximately 3.7 billion euros, in order to respond to concerns about its financing.
“We are still waiting for the audiovisual reform”
The Senate adopted an amendment by the general rapporteur Jean-François Husson (LR) to limit this assignment to December 31, 2024.
The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal relied on the "wisdom" of the Senate on this point.
The solution proposed by the National Assembly "can only be temporary", said Jean-François Husson, who criticized the government for having "sent the end credits before the program begins".
"The truth is that we are still waiting for the audiovisual reform, with a debate on the merits," insisted Roger Karoutchi (LR).
“We agree to abolish the fee, the question is how we will finance public broadcasting tomorrow”, asked Laurent Lafon, centrist president of the Culture Committee.
His group wanted the deletion to be postponed for a year.
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When Macron promised to abolish the TV license fee if he was re-elected
The three left-wing groups unsuccessfully opposed the abolition, David Assouline accusing the government of “creating the conditions for the weakening” of public broadcasting.
"We hold very deeply to public broadcasting and therefore to its financing", affirmed the socialist Jean-Pierre Sueur, while acknowledging that the license fee "today is obsolete".
Public broadcasting “is essential to contribute to the mission of independence” of information, added Pierre Ouzoulias (CRCE with a communist majority).
