Fuel: The government promises targeted aid, paid for by budget cuts.

This morning, at the pump, the bill can be read without glasses. The day after a new symbolic threshold, with the price exceeding 2 euros per liter in many stations, the Minister of Public Action and Accounts, David Amiel, assured on April 5th that the "targeted" aid decided upon in response to soaring fuel prices would be financed by cancellations of credits in state spending.

Translation: no check without accounting corrections. The government will take "measures, decrees to cancel" credits "proportionately this year," he promised, without saying which budgets will be cut.

Filling up the tank is expensive, and so is the government.

Behind this caution lies a recurring argument, like a crumpled receipt: the lack of room for maneuver. David Amiel offers a crunching calculation: in March, the price increase would have generated €270 million in additional tax revenue, but it would have driven up expenses by €430 million, including €300 million in additional debt interest and €130 million in "support" spending for the French people. "Public finances are deteriorating because of the crisis," he insists, adding that the government "retains nothing" of the additional revenue from fuel taxes. This message aims to dispel the persistent notion among motorists that the Ministry of Finance is rubbing its hands together with glee at every extra cent.

The fact remains that the government must keep two promises at once: to provide relief without opening the floodgates. On Thursday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced new "targeted" aid expected early next week, against a backdrop of war in the Middle East and rising prices. Support measures already exist for certain sectors—fishermen, truckers, farmers—but the pressure is mounting on the rest of the households, especially as diesel reaches an average of €2,307 and SP95-E10 €2,014, according to reports from service stations, representing increases of 34% and 17% respectively since February 27. Between the idea raised this week of using tax "surpluses" for the electrification of the economy and today's promise to offset each aid payment with a cut, a clear line is emerging: the government is searching for the point of equilibrium, the one that avoids public anger while keeping the coffers afloat, at a time when energy bills refuse to decrease.