The Senate voted on the night of Monday August 1 to Tuesday August 2, 2022, as part of the measures to support the purchasing powerthe abolition of the TV license feeafter a lively debate – ” rotten “according to Roger Karoutchi (LR) – on the financing and independence of public broadcasting.
The Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak announced on this occasion “the government’s desire to propose a one-year extension of the objective and means contracts of public audiovisual companies”. This in order “to take the time necessary to build the public audiovisual roadmap together”.
The vote was won by 196 votes against 147, during the examination at first reading of the amending finance bill for 2022.
Amounting to €138 in mainland France and €88 overseas this year, the license fee brought in €3.2 billion out of the €3.8 billion paid to public broadcasting. Her deletion is a campaign promise of re-elected candidate Emmanuel Macron.
The text plans to allocate to the public audiovisual ” a fraction ” VAT, for an amount of approximately 3.7 billion euros, in order to respond to concerns about its financing.
The Senate adopted an amendment by the general rapporteur Jean-François Husson (LR) to limit this assignment to December 31, 2024. The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal relied on the ” wisdom “ of the Senate on this point.
The solution proposed by the National Assembly “can only be temporary”estimated Mr. Husson, who criticized the government for having “sent the end credits before the program started”.
“The truth is that we are still waiting for the audiovisual reform, with a debate on the merits”Mr. Karoutchi insisted.
“We agree to abolish the license fee, the question is how we are going to finance public broadcasting tomorrow”, asked Laurent Lafon, centrist president of the Culture Committee. His group wanted the deletion to be postponed for a year.
The three left-wing groups unsuccessfully opposed the removal, with David Assouline blaming the government for “creating the conditions for weakening” public broadcasting.
“We care very deeply about public broadcasting and therefore about its funding”affirmed the socialist Jean-Pierre Sueur, while acknowledging that the royalty “today is obsolete”.
public broadcasting “is essential to contribute to the mission of independence” information, added Pierre Ouzoulias (CRCE with a communist majority).
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