Feijóo’s sick leave plan backfires with PP voters

Feijóo targets sick leave, but taxpayers pay the price

Who would think of starting a campaign by cutting pay for the ill? Alberto Núñez Feijóo did, judging by the wave of reactions to his comments on absenteeism. The PP leader chose the least profitable topic: instead of focusing on organized fraud or subsidized entities, he targeted ordinary workers taking medical leave. He did so in a formal conference, reading a prepared text, not as a drunken outburst.

The result is a storm within his own electorate. The dominant complaint is not that the diagnosis is wrong, but that the order of priorities is suicidal: first review extractive layers, both top and bottom, then look at the contributing worker. That is the core of the anger.

What Feijóo said about sick leave

The approach attributed to him is twofold: tighten control over sick leave and, in the harshest circulating version, stop paying workers during incapacity. The reference to cancer as a metaphor for fraud was one trigger, especially since Sémper, a senior party figure, has been on leave for nearly a year due to the same disease. The contrast speaks for itself.

Some argue fraud exists and most employees don’t practice it, but social envy makes neighbors’ exploitation unbearable. It is the most nuanced argument read: the problem is not the diagnosis, it is the message.

The order of cuts demanded by PP voters

The most repeated criticism does not deny that fake sick notes exist. What is disputed is the sequence. Before touching the worker's paycheck, there is demand to review subsidies to parties, employers' associations, unions, migrant aid, and duplicated regional structures. That is the package many of his voters want to hear first.

It is also argued that increased sick leave has an uncomfortable cause for official discourse: the dismantling of public healthcare. Waiting lists have multiplied, doctors are absent to sign discharges, tests are delayed. If you don't get discharged, you stay on leave. It is not laziness, it is healthcare bureaucracy.

Public healthcare as the real cause of absenteeism

This is where analysis becomes more uncomfortable for the PP. The strongest circulating thesis is that sick leave has become the last available protest mechanism for wage earners. Strike is a luxury, protests don't work, voting changes nothing. Sick leave remains. And those using it as a tool are not defrauding, they are resisting.

Against this, the response from employers and austerity supporters is simple: if you don't work, you don't get paid. The problem is that this principle, applied in a country with record waiting lists, becomes punishment for the genuinely ill.

Why Feijóo loses votes with this message

The most repeated reading is that he doesn't want to govern. His function is different: acting as a useful opposition minister for the Government, occupying the right-wing space without ever winning. His time at the Xunta de Galicia (regional government), where the PP wins with any candidate, is recalled, as well as his role as head of Correos (postal service), a resume some read as a hint regarding mail-in ballots.

Collateral damage is worse than tactical error. There are voters saying they will vote PSOE for the first time, not out of conviction, but as punishment. For a party needing to mobilize its base, this is a structural problem.

The calculation made quietly

The full breakdown of what each measure costs, line by line, reveals figures surprising to newcomers. It is not just savings in payroll: it is the effect on consumption, tax revenue, and the PP's own electoral base, which takes the most sick leave in sectors like construction or hospitality. This detailed calculation turns the announcement into a self-inflicted wound.

In the end, the simplest conclusion prevails: the man who seemed set to win through opponent fatigue has just reminded his electorate that he also has plans for their pockets. "Damn fool," they will say at Ferraz (PSOE headquarters). And they are not entirely wrong.