The president of the strategic committee of E.Leclerc centers Michel-Edouard Leclerc considered Wednesday “inflated” that the government asks distributors to decrease their prices at the pump, while a “big supplier” like the oil group TotalEnergies which reaps “billions of profits”, is not “required to lower its prices”.
The Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher reiterated on Tuesday her calls to distributors for fuel prices “to fall faster”, and reflect “as close as possible” the decline in international oil prices. “I find it quite inflated that a minister addresses distributors and not suppliers,” said Leclerc on BFMTV and RMC Wednesday, adding: “if there must be economic actors to lower the price of fuel, it is first of all the one who makes the fuel market.
“The margins secreted by Total last year are at least as high as the year before, the public authorities (he) had asked last year to make rebates and no one was offended that Total only returns half a billion to French consumers through its own network, “he argued. “And this year no one is dithering: Total said +I won’t go over 2 euros or 1.99 and that’s it,
Total, which is a major supplier, a major refiner on the French market, which makes billions in profits, is not required to lower its prices,” said the chairman of the strategic committee of E.Leclerc centers. “Each minister is taking out his little fight +typex+ to erase the pensions: you have (Gabriel) Attal who leaves on tax fraud, Agnes Pannier-Runacher leaves on fuel (…) Others have talked about the anti-inflation basket …”, said Leclerc.
Asked about a survey of the consumer association CLCV published Wednesday, denouncing “explosive margins of distributors on unleaded 95 and diesel”, with a gross margin record “exceeding 25 cents per liter”, Mr. Leclerc said: “it’s crazy, that: at the highest in a service station Leclerc (the margin is) 8 cents and on average it is 2.5 to 3 cents. However today “fuel prices are on a downward trend”, said Leclerc.
