After bakers, all craftsmen are finally concerned.
President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that all artisans and very small businesses hit by rising energy prices could "renegotiate" in January the "excessive contracts" in gas and electricity.
The measure would concern all very small businesses (TPE), while the government had already announced measures targeted at bakers on Tuesday, including the free termination of their contract “on a case-by-case basis”, in the event of a “prohibitive increase”.
"The State is not intended to bear all the additional costs related to electricity", specifies Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) pic.twitter.com/ZtKYNS2LEi
– BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 6, 2023
This Friday morning, at the microphone of RMC / BFMTV, Olivier Véran returned to these "crisis profiteers": "It is not normal that there are people who make very big profits at times when the State made a considerable gesture to protect households, ”said the government spokesperson.
Energy suppliers expected at Bercy
He cites the example of the baker: “At home, electricity will cost him 15% more thanks to the tariff shield.
But in his company, if he renewed his electricity contract in full explosion of energy costs, his bill will be multiplied by five or six, the duration of the contract.
“It is not normal that he pays such a price for two years.
This is why the energy suppliers, received at Bercy this Friday, are invited to renegotiate these contracts which commit the bosses of very small businesses to pay "exorbitant tariffs for two years".
Read alsoEnergy bills: how Macron's request caught suppliers off guard
“The baker wants to be sure that he will be able to sell his baguette at the same price in two months, continues Olivier Véran.
We must do everything to prevent bakers going out of business because energy will have cost too much a few months, a few weeks earlier”.
But it is out of the question for the State to “bear all the additional costs”: to fight against inflation and the energy crisis, the government “is not in whatever the cost”.
He favors “appropriate help at the right time for those who need it”.
On the subject of the demonstrations of the Yellow Vests against the pension reform, Olivier Véran defends the government's option: “It is not because a reform is unpopular that it should not be done.
If we do not reform the pension system, the financial imbalance will be too great tomorrow.
Some want to lower pensions for retirees, others to increase taxes.
We won't.
If we raise corporate taxes, the economy will slowly die.
There remains the last alternative: work a little longer.
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As a doctor and former Minister of Health, Olivier Véran was asked about the reform of the health system.
“Our system needs a profound reform, a reform which could not be carried out because of the Covid”, he underlines, while Emmanuel Macron must unveil his plan for the health system in the morning.