Political news, live: the National Assembly examines the purchasing power bill this afternoon – Le Monde

“We sometimes see a Lépine competition for additional expenditure”, Judge Franck Riester Franck Riester, Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Parliament and President of the Agir party, was questioned on France Inter. “What is the philosophy of the text on purchasing power? asked journalist Jérôme Cadet. “It is to protect our compatriots from the consequences of inflation – inflation, which is linked both to the disruption of a number of supply chains due to the Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine which obviously created a major problem of energy supply and increased energy costs,” said Mr. Riester. He believes that, however, the government “did not wait for this bill” to put in place measures to compensate for inflation. He specifies: “I nevertheless recall the energy shield with this shield on gas, the 4% cap on the increase in electricity, a certain number of indemnities and checks which have already been paid to our compatriots since the end of last year to support them in the face of the inflationary crisis”. “These 20 billion euros mobilized, it is the increase in pensions, it is the increase in social benefits, it is the ceiling on the increase in rents, it is the fact of increasing the point of index of the civil servants ”, he defended. “We have 20 billion [de budget pour le projet de loi sur le pouvoir d’achat], we do not want the parliamentary discussion to burden this budget too much, since you understand that we sometimes see a Lépine competition for additional expenditure, ”judged the minister. “It makes sense, it’s part of the parliamentary game. Except that on a budget text, in a certain way, well, each time there is a new proposal to vote, it is an additional expense. You have to be reasonable because you have to contain deficits,” said Riester. The minister was also questioned about the case of Caroline Cayeux, the minister for local authorities, after the publication of a column published yesterday in Le JDD denouncing the “homophobic comments” she made. Among the hundred signatories are personalities of the presidential majority, such as the deputies of the majority Joël Giraud, David Valence, Raphaël Gérard, Quentin Bataillon. “It’s not up to me to define the government team”, he began by saying, before estimating that “she had remarks, at the time of the debate on marriage for all, unacceptable. There, she had awkward words that hurt to try to explain her comments at the time. And since then, she has apologized several times. “I think it was important to do that and I think she’s part of a progressive government and majority that supports LGBT rights,” he said.