Finance minister urges people to look at Kazakhstan’s bitter experience
The French authorities are working on further measures to restrain spiking energy prices, the country’s finance minister said, issuing a warning about political fallout ahead of a presidential election.
“Look what’s going on in Kazakhstan, it’s quite indicative of what can happen when energy prices explode, it’s politically dangerous,” Bruno Le Maire said on Friday.
“If we don’t find a solution to the electricity prices in the days to come, the French will see at the end of January an increase of 35-40%.”
The call comes amid a European energy crisis that has deepened over the past several months with energy prices across the continent soaring to the previously unseen levels. Earlier this week, the front-month gas price at the Dutch TTF hub, a European benchmark for natural gas trading, was around 5% higher with the price reaching €93.30 per megawatt-hour.
In France, energy prices are frequently a sensitive topic. The country’s government faced months of violent street protests after a fuel-tax increase in 2018. The rallies even grew into a broader anti-government movement.
In the wake of the widespread surge in energy prices, Paris committed to protecting households by capping an increase in regulated tariffs for 2022 at only 4% in February. However, prices are rising, and the tax cut on energy costs that was supposed to limit the increase is no longer enough.
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