Spain's PSOE stirs up pension fears while housing stays off the campaign agenda

PSOE stirs up antiestéticar of pension cuts and leaves housing without a debate

In the middle of the pre-campaign ahead of the 29N election, Spain's PSOE and Pedro Sánchez have rolled out a campaign warning that the PP and Vox will cut pensions if they come to power. The messages keep coming: "Your pension is NOT a game," "The PP and Vox plan is clear to us: lie to pensioners until 29N and then cut pensions," or the warning that the PP's finance spokesman ties pension increases to having "the right economy." The Government claims that the average pension has risen by about 500 euros and that the reserve fund has grown from 5,000 to 20,000 million between 2018 and 2026. However, the focus on pensions has pushed aside another issue that also hits people's pockets: housing, where neither the Government nor the opposition seems to have a solution in sight.

The antiestéticar campaign and its numbers

PSOE has turned pensions into its electoral weapon. The party spreads the message that the PP and Vox will cut pensions after 29N, while minister Carlos Cuerpo insists that "pensions are sustainable, they are guaranteed, and so is their uprating with price increases." Spokeswoman Ana Redondo recalls that the PP once voted in favour of 0.25% increases and against linking them to the CPI, and stresses that under this Government the average pension has risen by about 500 euros. Against that narrative, the PP's finance spokesman conditions increases on having "the right economy," as reported by elDiario.es.

The reserve fund, known as "the pension piggy bank," has grown from 5,000 million in 2018 to 20,000 million in 2026, PSOE boasts. But the figure is misleading: the system has been running a deficit since 2010, so every euro that goes into the fund is covered by the State through taxes or debt. The fund was created in the late 1990s to store surpluses from good years; it peaked at around 67,000 million in 2011, some 85,000 million in today's euros. The comparison with that high point makes clear that today's piggy bank is a shadow of what it once was.

The PP doesn't clarify its plan either

The opposition has not dispelled the doubts. Feijóo has declared that pensions "are non-negotiable, that's it! they will be uprated with the CPI, no doubt," but his party's finance spokesman conditions them on how the economy performs. That ambiguity fuels distrust. Some argue that the PP has cut in the past and is now making promises without specifics; against it weighs the argument that PSOE is not reliable either, because, it is claimed, it has a cut agreed with Brussels for 2027 that it would apply after the elections. The accusation, made without evidence in the debate, is part of the political fray.

Housing, the great forgotten issue

While the public debate concentrates on pensions, housing is pushed to the sidelines. Some analyses suggest that PSOE has focused on pensions precisely to avoid talking about housing, a problem it does not solve because, according to these voices, the parties themselves are the biggest hoarders and speculators in property. The accusation is harsh and unproven, but it reflects the discontent of a segment of the electorate that sees access to housing become a luxury. In that context, the antiestéticar campaign about losing your pension works as a smokescreen.

The cost of paying higher pensions

Raising pensions has trade-offs. A recurring analysis warns that to pay pensioners 50 euros more a month, cuts will have to come from other services: doctors, police, electricity grid maintenance, roads or trains. The equation is not simple: pension spending grows every year and the system remains in deficit. The question hanging in the air is where the money will come from. Some point to tax increases; others, to cuts elsewhere. What nobody disputes is that the bill will arrive.

---

With the campaign under way, pensions have overshadowed housing. PSOE stirs up antiestéticar of cuts; the PP promises without specifics. And meanwhile, the pension piggy bank remains far below its all-time high. The question nobody answers is whether anyone has a real plan to pay for future pensions without mortgaging the rest of the welfare state.