The president of the PP and candidate for the presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has assured that, if he manages to form an Executive after the general elections on November 29, he will not have a Ministry of Housing, despite considering that area to be “the main problem” of the country.
In an interview on the podcast The Wild Project, hosted by Jordi Wild, the popular leader has stated that his Government will have fewer high-ranking officials than the current one and that there will be departments, such as Equality or Housing, that will not have their own ministry.
The statements come a day after the Permanent Deputation approved the so-called “Maricarmen decree”, a package of housing measures that the PP has already announced it will repeal if it comes to power.
10,000 or 12,000 million for pensions if absenteeism decreases
During the same conversation, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has maintained that Spain could have between 10,000 and 12,000 million euros to allocate to the pension system if absenteeism is reduced, considering that part of the current sick leaves might not be justified.
The leader of the PP has linked the increase in absenteeism to the increase in spending for companies and public administrations, and has estimated that cost at more than 30,000 million euros in 2025, compared to 13,000 million in 2000. He has also stated that the number of people who do not go to their workplace daily would have increased from the 450,000-470,000 registered in 2018 to more than one million in 2025.
“10,000, 12,000 million for pensions,” he stated when raising the possibility of determining what part of the registered absenteeism responds to unjustified situations.
Promise to revalue pensions and rejection of extending the retirement age
Asked about the sustainability of the public pension system, Feijóo has defended that its viability depends on “healthy” economic growth, based on greater productivity, private and foreign investment, and job creation, with the aim of increasing the number of contributors and contributions to the system.
In this context, he has estimated the transfers from taxes received by the pension system at approximately 50,000 million euros, arguing that there is a deficit that must be corrected. At the same time, he has guaranteed that, if he governs, he will update pensions in accordance with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Regarding the retirement age, the president of the PP has described 67 years as a “reasonable” age and has assured that his party does not foresee obligatorily extending that limit. “We are not going to extend the retirement age,” he concluded, although he has defended making it easier for those who want to continue working after that age to combine their work activity with the partial collection of their pension.
Criticism of the Government and doubts about public accounts
At another point in the interview, Alberto Núñez Feijóo said that he does not believe the Government's economic data and denounced a “concealment of spending”. “I believe there are a series of multi-year commitments that we are unaware of,” he stated when referring to public accounts.
The leader of the PP accused the Executive of having finished the legislature “without approving the accounts for a single year” and insisted that he cannot believe figures that, he pointed out, he does not know. “How can I believe? What accounts am I supposed to believe, the ones I don't know?” he emphasized.
Possible agreement with Vox and negotiation framework
Regarding a possible Government with Vox, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has assured that he has not yet negotiated with Santiago Abascal and explained that, if he does not achieve an absolute majority, he will meet with the leader of the far-right party after the elections to convey his opinion on what Spain needs.
Feijóo stated that he can “perfectly understand” the concern of citizens about a possible pact with Vox, although he maintained that he can prove that in the regional governments in which that party participates there has been “no problem”.
The framework for any agreement, he insisted, would be the document used for pacts in Andalusia, Castilla y León, Aragon and Extremadura, based on respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, European regulations and issues such as gender violence or commitments related to real and effective equality between men and women.
Minimum Living Income, Ceuta and Morocco
The president of the PP has also spoken about immigration and has assured that he will seek to withdraw the Minimum Living Income (IMV) from immigrants who are receiving it without having worked during the last year. “They will have the obligation to take a job and, if they do not do so repeatedly, the aid will be gradually reduced until it reaches zero,” he explained during the interview with Jordi Wild.
Feijóo also criticized the Government's management during the crisis in Ceuta, reproaching the President of the Executive for the lack of foresight and institutional response. “I would have listened to the reports from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) that said concern was growing and I would have contacted the Moroccan Government,” he said when explaining how he would have acted if he had been in Pedro Sánchez's place.
In that vein, the popular leader stated that Morocco cannot be considered a “strategic ally” when they “invade the EU,” and warned that this situation could lead to an unprecedented crisis with Spain and the European Union.
The relationship with Marcial Dorado
Asked by Jordi Wild about his relationship with the Galician drug trafficker Marcial Dorado and the well-known photograph of both on a yacht, Feijóo recalled that he had already given the necessary explanations. According to him, he met him in a political context, knew that he had been involved in tobacco smuggling, and was introduced to him by a colleague from the Xunta de Galicia.
The popular leader added that he broke off relations with him when he learned that he had a pending trial for smuggling. “I prefer to have this photo to the entire collection that Sánchez has,” he assured.
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