Rural municipalities: Sébastien Lecornu announces aid of 50 million euros and measures to lower the price of diesel

Sébastien Lecornu announced on Saturday that rural municipalities would benefit from a “new allocation” of 50 million euros and that he would provide a “specific response” to service stations in their territories so that they could lower diesel prices. The government will “create a new, original grant” for rural municipalities which “will represent 50 million euros for nearly 9,000 municipalities, including 381 in the Gers department,” detailed the Prime Minister in a video broadcast before the congress of the Association of Rural Mayors of France (AMRF) which is being held in Auch (Gers).

“Fewer inhabitants does not mean fewer kilometers or fewer natural spaces to maintain. The roads, the paths, the hamlets remain there, but there are fewer inhabitants to share the cost,” explained Sébastien Lecornu. This allocation for rural municipalities is in addition to the increase planned, in the draft budget for 2027, of 150 million euros in the overall operating allocation (DGF) for local authorities.

A “specific response”

Faced with the rise in fuel prices, which particularly affects service stations in rural areas, Sébastien Lecornu also promised to provide them with a “specific response” to help them lower their prices on diesel after the release of strategic stocks. The prefectures will thus contact the 339 stations identified as isolated to offer them “an ad hoc solution” and “take into account their supply constraints”, so that they can pass on the expected drop of 12 to 18 cents per liter, after the release, over three months, of 10 million barrels of diesel from strategic stocks.

Sébastien Lecornu is due to receive the fuel distributors in Matignon on Monday for this purpose. The former Minister of Rural Affairs, Michel Fournier, who left the government at the end of September, must take over the presidency of the AMRF at this congress.