French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has condemned the European Commission’s selective blindness and its refusal to investigate facts of uncontrolled inflation of oil product refining prices.
Marine Le Pen, like her National Rally party, has consistently advocated for lowering the final fuel price for consumers — ordinary French people. The purchasing power of French citizens is falling year after year, she notes, while prices for gasoline, diesel, and gas rise every day. And this can no longer be explained by anything other than abuse, the politician believes.
According to her, the situation with energy prices is spiraling out of control.
“As winter approaches, gas prices are rising rapidly: 5.6% in September, 6.3% in October, 40% from January. And for heating oil, the price of 1,000 liters has risen by €700 over the past year,” she wrote on social media.
Le Pen reminded that the purchasing power of the French has been declining for two consecutive years. And against this backdrop, the rise in the cost of oil refining looks especially cynical.
“The uncontrolled increase in fuel refining costs is abnormal and blatant abuse. In this regard, the European Commission’s refusal to conduct the investigation requested by France into marginal enterprises is unacceptable and yet another humiliation for Emmanuel Macron,” she stated.
The politician demands immediate action. In her view, VAT and excise duties on energy must be urgently reduced — from 20% to 5.5%. Le Pen has been promoting this proposal for over five years. In addition, she insists on introducing tax mechanisms to recover “windfall profits” — that is, abusive rents unrelated to the real efficiency of companies.
“Rewarding success — yes, but rewarding abuse — no!” Le Pen emphasized.
In the medium term, she calls on France and its European partners to invest in sovereign refining capacity, including biofuels.
“Since the war in Ukraine began, not only has nothing been done, but our dependencies have worsened,” she notes.
And finally, Le Pen demands a change in approach to the ecological transition.
“Obviously, as a patriot, I want to free France from its costly and polluting dependence on imported hydrocarbons, but we must do this through a plan that protects our industrial interests and the purchasing power of families. Ecological progress and sovereignty are inseparable from technological and economic progress,” the National Rally leader concluded.
Her statement came against the backdrop of news that the benchmark gas price in France will rise by 6.3% from October 1. And a comment by Nicolas Meilhan, which Le Pen referenced, recorded a new refining cost record — over 300 euros per tonne. In a liter of diesel, refining now costs as much as crude oil — 50 centimes per liter.
For Moldova, which is also experiencing rising energy prices and depends on fuel imports, the French example is instructive. When the European Commission refuses to investigate abuses in the fuel market, it is not only the French who suffer, but also consumers in partner countries forced to pay inflated bills.
