The left had managed to narrowly pass them through amendments in the morning, against the advice of the government. But the National Assembly finally rejected Thursday, April 6 afternoon, measures to block food prices and a “inflation basket”.
The deputies rejected by 138 votes against 121 the whole of an ecological law proposal devoted to access to food. This vote mechanically buries the Communist amendments and La France insoumise (LFI) on blocked prices, adopted the same morning with the voices of the left and the National Rally against “social emergency”.
As food prices continue to rise, communist Sébastien Jumel wanted a “inflation basket” for agricultural and food products with prices “fixed” and less than “estimated inflation”.
The deputies had also supported a measure by the rebellious Emmanuel Fernandes to extend to the whole territory a “price-quality shield” already in force in the Overseas Territories for food and hygiene products ” indispensable “. His amendment provided at least “price freeze for five seasonal fruits and vegetables”.
The Minister for Solidarity, Jean-Christophe Combe, had tried to oppose it, considering that the “regulated prices that are too low can lead to the appearance of shortages”because producers can get away with “divert” in “judging too weak” profit prospects. Macronist deputies also recalled the distributors’ commitments to the government: an anti-inflation quarter around a range of products. On the right, LR Anne-Laure Blin pounded the “Sovietism” and the “degrowth” from the left.
An “obvious mark of contempt”
Previously, the deputies had started to unravel this ecological bill of a food bonus of 50 euros per month for the most modest, by sticking to the government promises of a fund for sustainable food aid.
Jean-Christophe Combe defended the government program “Eat better for all” of 60 million euros in 2023, announced by the executive in the fall. Are provided “40 million euros at the national level”especially for “enable food distribution associations to access fresh products” et ” quality “.
The program includes 20 million euros in support « d’initiatives locales »including possible experiments with “targeted checks” launched by communities for access to foodstuffs “locally produced food”in « circuits courts ». The promise of a food check has been a government sea serpent for more than two years.
Environmentalists then suffered a setback on another measure, their desire to ban from 2024 nitrate additives in all cold cuts, or at least in cooked ham, “especially popular with children”. “On nitrites, it’s incomprehensible, we are on carcinogenic substances”denounced the president of the EELV group Cyrielle Chatelain.
The government has put forward the plan to reduce the use of nitro additives in food, unveiled at the end of March. At the origin of the rejected bill, the ecologist Francesca Pasquini denounced a “obvious mark of contempt” of the government on its text.