The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has once again attacked the Government for the proposal of the Ministry of Social Security for an increase in the contributions of the self-employed for the period 2026-2028. The Ministry of Security has made public this week its new table of quotas by sections, which it has presented to the self-employed associations and social agents, and which according to the minister, Elma Saiz, is still in the “listening” phase and is negotiable. According to the ministry's calculations, the quota for 2026 for workers who are in the three lowest brackets of the table – almost 1.4 million people, 40% of the total, who earn below 1,166 euros per month – would be between 217 and 271 euros. On the other side of the table — 15% of the self-employed, some 570,000 people with a contribution above 3,620 euros — would have to pay between 592 and 796 euros.
The measure has been received very unevenly among the self-employed and even among the government partners – Sumar and Junts, for example, have been against the plan because they consider that it penalizes the self-employed with lower incomes – and the PP has taken advantage of the opportunity. Alberto Núñez Feijóo directly attacked the Executive on Wednesday in Congress and described the proposal as a “blame.” This Saturday he assured that the money of the self-employed “cannot go to pay for jokes or prostitutes.” At the same time, he has presented a countermeasure plan that he undertakes to carry out if he becomes president of the Government and that includes points such as lowering taxes for the self-employed and reducing bureaucracy.
“I understand the anger of those who pay so that someone else can take it,” said the leader of the PP at an event with self-employed workers and businessmen in Soria, together with the president of the Regional Government of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. He has described the proposal, again, as “an outrage.” “Lowering taxes is not an option, it is an obligation,” said Feijóo, who has announced that his plan will exempt self-employed workers with incomes of less than 85,000 euros per year from paying VAT.
It must be taken into account that the increase in the self-employed quota proposed by the Ministry of Social Security is not comparable with taxes; They are not monthly payments that the Executive collects and dedicates to public services such as healthcare, but rather they are fees that impact rights such as pensions or maternity leave, individual for each self-employed person according to their contribution. This measure is in turn already based on the 2022 pact, in which it was agreed to divide workers into 12 sections according to their earnings so that they would begin to contribute for their “real income.” Before that, self-employed workers could choose their contribution and the vast majority (85%) contributed as little as possible. This generated social benefits – such as sick leave or maternity leave – that were very reduced compared to employees, with higher contributions and also better social protection. “It caused the self-employed to receive on average today 650 euros less pension per month than an employed worker,” Minister Saiz defended this Wednesday.
Feijóo, however, has asked the Government to “stop treating hard-working and honest people like an ATM or like criminals when they manage to prosper”, since criminals are “those who live at the expense of workers, taking public money to their homes.” According to the PP, the party leader is committed to reversing the “immense nonsense” of the Executive, which “wants to raise taxes on more than 3 million Spaniards in one go to raise 6,000 million more,” confusing the final objective of quotas and taxes. “Spain has to stop being a country that is expensive for the worker and cheap for the boss,” he assured.
Feijóo has also referred to the immigration plan presented by the PP: “To come to Spain you have to come to work, you have to come to contribute, you have to come to contribute, you have to comply with the laws that we Spaniards comply with and if that is the case, you will be welcome. But if you come to live off the taxes of those who work, if you come to break the laws that we are obliged to comply with, and if you come to commit a crime you have to go”, he stressed.