Gasoline aid of €100, exit from coal, withdrawal from Niger: what to remember from the announcements of the Head of State

His intervention was announced at the start of the weekend: from the Élysée, Emmanuel Macron spoke on Sunday evening on TF1 and France 2, for around thirty minutes on national and international news.

1 Inflation including the price of fuel.

A major concern, the increase in the cost of living is weighing down the morale of the French. Concerning food, the President announced the reopening of “negotiations with major manufacturers. We are going to put in place an agreement on the moderation of margins, we must bring everyone around the table”.

While wanting to track down “all those who commit excesses” with the establishment of “controllers”. For the price of fuel, he finally announced the end of the sale at a loss proposed barely a week ago by Élisabeth Borne and refused to reduce the taxes which, he said, finance the ecological transition, the social security and the regions.

The cost price of gasoline and limited aid to the poorest

Two announcements though. One: go towards the cost price of gasoline.

“We are going to bring together the players in the sector and ask them to sell at cost price using the refiners’ margins.” Two: aid “limited to those who need the car to work” in the amount of “€100 per car per year”.

2 The announced exit from coal.

To ensure the energy transition and meet the objectives of reducing CO2 emissions, Emmanuel Macron announces 40 billion euros of investment for 2024. He wants to “get rid of coal, the most polluting fossil energy, by 2027. We still have two coal-fired power stations, we are going to convert them to biomass.”

One million electric cars produced in France by 2027

Concerning “the car”, he also intends that France could “produce electric vehicles”, up to one million per year by 2027, which would make it possible to create tens of thousands of jobs by “re-industrializing through ecology”.

He also mentioned the creation of four battery factories in the country and assured that his promise of a leasing campaign for electric cars “by the end of the year” will be accompanied by aid of “€100 per month for vehicles produced in Europe.

3 The soldiers will leave Niger.

The situation in Niger, since the putsch of July 26, has been in an impasse. “France has decided to bring back its ambassador and therefore, in the coming hours, several diplomats will return to France. And we are ending our military cooperation.”

French soldiers based in Niger “will return in an orderly manner in the coming weeks and months”, he added, specifying that their return was planned by the end of the year.

French soldiers from Niger returned by the end of the year

Invited to speak on the tensions in Azerbaijan, where 120,000 Christian Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh will flee, he assured “unconditional and constant support for the Armenians”.

4 Immigration and “the misery of the world”.

The head of state was questioned on the question of migrants from Lampedusa after the positions taken by Pope Francis in Marseille at the end of the week.

The Pope came to Marseille, he is right to call for this start against indifference, but Europe is the continent that is doing the most” he reacted, also taking up the phrase of the late Michel Rocard: “France cannot accommodate all the misery in the world”.

He did not answer what role France could take on the refugees from Lampedusa.

Migrants: helping return, fighting against smugglers

But, he insisted on the necessary work with countries of origin, so that they cooperate “better on returns” and with transit countries, first and foremost Tunisia, “to dismantle smuggler networks”.

Concerning the Immigration bill, which must return to the Senate at the beginning of November, he did not answer the question of the possible regularization of people in an irregular situation working in professions in shortage.