From the BBC:
“France to pay 38m citizens
€100 each to ease costs”
The French government has
announced a one-off payment of €100 (£84; $116) for each citizen whose monthly
net income is €2,000 or less, to help counter the surge in fuel and energy
prices. The "inflation allowance" will go to about 38 million French
people automatically, including those who do not drive a car or ride a
motorbike. The first payments will go to business employees in late December. Civil
servants, students and pensioners will get theirs in early 2022.
The €100 payment will be tax-free
and Prime Minister Jean Castex said it would cost the government €3.8bn
(£3.2bn; $4.4bn). That would be far less than the cost of cutting fuel duty, he
said. Europe is facing widespread discontent after world energy prices spiked,
largely a result of huge demand from businesses recovering from the long Covid
paralysis. The energy market turmoil has had a knock-on effect, disrupting
supply chains and causing some shortages of fuel and other consumer goods. President
Emmanuel Macron is six months away from a presidential election and the spike
in energy prices threatens to trigger a new wave of mass protests. The
"gilets jaunes" (yellow vest) protests in 2018 escalated from
protests over fuel duty to a much wider anti-government movement.
The anger of France's yellow
vests Mr Castex said a cap on household gas prices would remain in place
until the end of 2022, as world energy prices were expected to fall only
gradually. Some 13 million pensioners and two-thirds of students will be
among those who receive the €100. It will also go to about half of all workers,
as €2,000 is the average net monthly income. Motorists have been hit by
soaring fuel prices: diesel has risen to a record €1.56 per litre on average in
France, and unleaded petrol to €1.62 per litre, the daily Le Monde reports.
^ 100 Euros ($116) will not make
a dent in helping anyone. It is literally just a Band-Aid that is half on an
open wound and half off of it about to fall off. ^
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