The leader of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Friday that his party will present a bill to “guarantee” the increase in pensions despite having extended Budgets. In reality, there have already been several pension increases with extended accounts in recent years and it is precisely the Government that approves a royal decree law with the measure, like the one that the PP overthrew this January together with Junts (although both parties later rectified with a subsequent decree with few changes).
Alberto Núñez Feijóo is now trying to position the PP as a safeguard for the rise in public pensions in the context of extended Budgets. “Because the pensioners are not to blame for the fact that the Government has neither a majority nor a plan to govern,” he stated this morning.
However, the increase in pensions in recent years has occurred in the same context of extended public accounts, through the executive action of the Government.
Votes against the PP to the increase in pensions
In fact, the PP has so far voted on several occasions against the increase in pensions. First of all, voted against the 2021 reform that once again linked the revaluation of pensions to the CPIand that overturned the semi-freezes of 0.25% and the so-called “sustainability factor” of the legislation of the PP Government of Mariano Rajoy.
This reform went ahead, so “the purchasing power of pensioners is already protected by law,” the Ministry of Social Security recalled this Friday. “Pensioners can rest assured. Their pensions are going to rise as much as life has risen in the last year. There is no need to make any reforms for that,” they added in the department led by Elma Saiz.
Although pension increases according to the CPI are already regulated in this reform, “the doctrine of the Council of State and the State Attorney's Office is that it has to be specified in the budget law and, failing that, through a royal decree law,” explains a source of social dialogue.
And in this context in which the PP once again voted against the increase in pensions for 10 million people. It did so with the royal omnibus decree that regulated the 2.8% increase in pensions in 2025, which temporarily overturned the increase. Immediately, the PP asked the Government to resubmit a decree with the increase, something it supported in a second vote with a very similar decree.
Thus, less than a year later, the PP is now trying to appropriate the increase in pensions for 2026, anticipating the royal decree-law that the Government will present. “The Popular Party must be responsible and not confuse pensioners. It can show its commitment to them by voting in favor of the 2026 revaluation, and not voting against it like the last time,” the Ministry of Elma Saiz responded.
What increase does Feijóo propose?
One of the unknowns of this PP bill is what increase in pensions the Popular Party proposes. If Alberto Núñez Feijóo will rectify his party and now support the increase in pensions with the CPI, or if the 'popular' intend to propose another lower increase for pensions.
The coalition government is increasing pensions in general with the average CPI and the minimum and non-contributory pensions (as well as the minimum vital income), in greater amounts to bring them closer to the poverty line, as was also agreed in the pension reform of the last legislature.
In the past, Feijóo has had significant setbacks with the increase in pensions. The most remembered, due to the electoral context in which it occurred, when he said in a TVE interview that the PP had raised pensions every year according to the CPI and, in response to the correction of the presenter Silvia Intxaurrondo, the politician even asked the journalist for a rectification. In the end, it was the Galician who had to recognize his “inaccuracy.”
