A month ago, when Emmanuel Macron entered the campaign, the theme of purchasing power was almost absent from his program. A deliberate choice: the candidate president had spent the fall and winter increasing support measures for households in the face of growing inflation, alternating boosts, checks, blocking measures, rebates on fuel at the pump… all for a total of around 30 billion euros. His record should speak for him. The candidate could allow himself to project himself in the longer term, speaking rather of work, distribution of added value, competitiveness. With an implicit subtext: all this ultimately contributes to purchasing power.
The subject, however, caught up with him quickly. And he had to adjust – a little – in the face of a Marine Le Pen hammering that she “would return the money to the French”. He therefore announced faster than expected increases in pensions and social minima, and unearthed his idea of a “food check”. Above all, for the past few days, the program and the balance sheet have been repainted in the colors of this question which worries the French so much, especially the most undecided.
a bit technical
The jobs created during the five-year term? It’s purchasing power, explained Emmanuel Macron on France Inter, Friday, April 22. “I am delighted to have created 1.2 million payslips. I am delighted to have redistributed purchasing power, mainly among the middle classes,” he advanced. Competitiveness ? It is also, he explains to West France the same day. Same goes for past and future tax cuts – “Seven and a half billion on households so that there is a gain in purchasing power”, he explains again. The abolition of the royalty is immediate purchasing power.
The “employee dividend”, this mechanism forcing companies that pay dividends to set up profit-sharing or participation for employees, is purchasing power for those who work. The payment of social benefits at source, ditto. The relaxation of taxation on inheritance, it is still, defends his entourage. The objective of full employment in 2027, more than ever. Finally, work is “the best response to purchasing power”, as he again repeated to West France, who made it his title. The expression he had barely uttered in his mid-March press conference is now omnipresent in his speeches. The notion of purchasing power being by nature diffuse, and poorly defined by economists, it can become the objective of very varied public policies.
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