Total at the heart of debates on margins and fuel price caps

Against the backdrop of the protracted fuel crisis, Total remains at the center of the debate. Questioned this Wednesday, September 23 on BFMTV-RMC, the Minister of SMEs and Commerce Serge Papin declared that he “did not want to bother” the French oil group, targeted by several political leaders for increasing its margins since the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East, some, like France Insoumise, calling for their taxation or “blocking”.

Regarding the capping of prices at the pump applied by the French major since March, the minister affirmed that he “wished that Total would continue” this system, praising a “common front” between the State and distributors to protect consumers from the surge in fuel prices. “I am Minister of Purchasing Power and it suits me that we can find, in France, diesel at 2.25 euros,” added Serge Papin while the average price of diesel reached a record level of 2.41 euros per liter on Sunday in France. Regarding energy saving certificates, singled out by several presidential candidates, the Minister of SMEs declared himself “in favor of a debate”.

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The left on the offensive

Since the start of the war in the Middle East, which triggered a significant increase in pump prices, Total has been accused by several left-wing politicians of having “taken advantage” of the conflict to massively inflate the margins linked to its refining activities.

Raphaël Glucksmann, interviewed Monday on France Info, thus accused the government of not “[want] to offend Mr. (Patrick) Pouyanné”, the CEO of the group, by “blocking” the proposal formulated by 6 European countries – Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, Portugal and Spain – to tax the “superprofits” made by oil companies since the outbreak of war in the Middle East. A position immediately denied by government spokesperson Maud Bregeon, who recalled that Sébastien Lecornu had declared that he had “no objection in principle” to the initiative.

Fabien Roussel, communist candidate in the presidential election, went so far as to compare the CEO of Total Patrick Pouyanné to Louis Renault, director of the eponymous automobile manufacturer, arrested at the Liberation for having put his industrial tools at the service of the German army, while defending a blocking of the margins made by Total. An idea also defended by Jean-Luc Mélenchon who denounced this Wednesday morning “a kind of racket which is being carried out on the French population”.