By calling on Tuesday February 21 for a new “gesture” on diesel, President Emmanuel Macron put pressure on the big producers by calling on them to “the spirit of responsibility”, targeting TotalEnergies which recently dangled new rebates to the pump.

“I hope that the dialogue can be finalized between the ministry and the companies concerned as it was done last year on fuels with rebates at the pump which had been made by companies like Total”, declared Emmanuel Macron since the Rungis wholesale market.

The president was making his very first outing there in contact with his fellow citizens since the launch of the pension reform at the start of the year, and was accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and the Minister for SMEs, Olivia Grégoire. .

“We can also have gestures made again,” Mr. Macron added. I know the spirit of responsibility of our major producers and retailers and I think it is important at a time when we need to support our compatriots. »

Immediately questioned about this “gesture”, on CNews, the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, also appealed to the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné: “I say to the boss of Total, who makes relatively little profit in France but a lot in the rest of the world: invest in France, invest in the energy transition, and give back everything you can to the French, I think it will benefit our country. »

Pouyanné “ready to consider it”

Asked in the wake of Emmanuel Macron’s statements, TotalEnergies referred to the words of Patrick Pouyanné at the time of the announcement of the record net profit of 20.5 billion euros earned in 2022 by the multinational. On February 8, when fuel prices were approaching two euros per liter, TotalEnergies had indeed dangled French motorists with discounts at the pump, but not as long as strikes against the pension reform are disrupting fuel shipments. “We are ready to consider” a new discount, announced Patrick Pouyanné, acknowledging that a liter of fuel at two euros constituted a “psychological threshold (…) in the heads of the French”. However, he did not give any details on the amount or the conditions of this rebate.

Last week, diesel was sold in France at an average price of 1.8382 euros per liter, almost stable compared to the previous week. Unleaded gasoline was sold on average at 1.9070 euro per litre, also almost stable, as was SP95-E10 at 1.8776 euro per litre.

From September to December 2022, TotalEnergies had granted discounts at the pump of 20 then 10 cents in its stations, for a total cost of 550 million euros. This was on top of a state-funded rebate, which ended on December 31 and which the government was unwilling to extend in the name of fiscal responsibility.

Instead, a fuel allowance of 100 euros can be requested from mid-January, and until the end of March, for the 10 million poorest tax households using the car to go to work. Tuesday morning, Agnès Pannier-Runacher recalled that this fuel allowance had not yet been requested by many potential beneficiaries.