Feijóo receives a harsh warning from the right for his lapses on 'Cadena SER': "He cannot do an interview like today's again"

The interview of Alberto Núñez Feijóo on 'Cadena SER' has left a public reproach from the right regarding his way of facing questions. "If Feijóo wants to win the elections, he cannot do an interview like today's on SER again," wrote this Friday Hugo Pérez Ayán, founder of Voces Libres and columnist for 'The Objective', after listening to the PP candidate before Aimar Bretos.

Ayán has described the popular leader as "hesitant, rushed, with constant slips" and reproached him for falling "for all the tricks" that, in his opinion, the interviewer posed to him. His assessment focuses especially on two moments of the conversation, the error about the taxation of the minimum wage and the explanation with which Feijóo has defended that he considers himself a feminist.

The warning comes from an author who has publicly defended the understanding between the PP and the far-right Vox and who presents himself as a liberal. In his publication, he links the candidate's performance with his chances of winning the elections on November 29. Regarding the content, he points out the worst as "the IRPF blunder" and summarizes his response on feminism with the expression "I am a feminist because I have a mother."

The interview has also forced Génova to acknowledge a lapse regarding the average salary, and Feijóo to publish a clarification. The difficulty in sustaining certain data when re-questioned has a particularly well-known precedent in his conversation with Silvia Intxaurrondo on TVE during the 2023 campaign, when the journalist corrected his statement that the PP had always revalued pensions according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Data on salaries and pensions

One of the main stumbling blocks this Friday came when discussing the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI). Feijóo accused the Government of making a "good business" with its increases because workers would end up paying more taxes. When Bretos reminded him that those recipients do not pay IRPF for that salary, he replied that "it was exempt before." The 2026 regulation contemplates a deduction of 590.89 euros to neutralize the quota corresponding to the SMI, set at 1,221 euros per month in fourteen payments, 17,094 euros per year.

The deduction operates in the income tax return, so that any withholdings that may be made on the payroll are regularized later. This difference between an automatic exemption and a deduction allows for discussion of the tax formula, but the current mechanism is designed to prevent the tax from absorbing part of the minimum wage. Feijóo has also conditioned increases on agreement with employers and unions, while the Workers' Statute attributes the annual setting of the amount to the Government, after consulting both parties.

In that exchange, he went so far as to say that "the Popular Party is against raising the average salary," a phrase that Génova has acknowledged as a slip of the tongue and that contradicts the objective he himself had expressed during the conversation. At 9:36, his account published a clarification committing to raise both the minimum and the average and to establish the SMI exemption by law. To defend his message, he linked a TVE news item from February 11, 2025, about the confrontation between Hacienda and Trabajo, prior to the deduction that was eventually approved and its expansion this year.

Pensions have left more statements that require correction. Feijóo has attributed to the First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, a diagnosis about problems of the system and possible increases in contributions and the retirement age. In his interview on October 16 on 'Onda Cero', Cuerpo expressly stated that "the sustainability of pensions is guaranteed". The candidate has also promised to update them with the CPI, an obligation already included in the General Social Security Law.

His statement that Aznar left the largest pension piggy bank also does not fit with official records. The Reserve Fund closed 2003, the last full year of that Government, with 12,025 million euros and reached 66,815 million at the end of 2011, after the period of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. In public debt, Feijóo has placed Spain as the third most indebted country in the European Union, when the latest Eurostat data places it in fifth place by debt relative to GDP, behind Greece, Italy, France and Belgium.

Equality and rights in question

The answer on feminism has been the other moment highlighted by Ayán. Feijóo has argued that he grew up "in my house with many more women than men". In the same interview, he confirmed that he would integrate Equality competencies into other ministries and questioned the workload of its head. The candidate thus maintains his proposal to abolish the department as an independent ministry.

Regarding abortion, he has proposed debating again the information to parents of 16 and 17-year-old girls and has resorted to the comparison with the necessary authorization to get a tattoo. During his answers, he specified that he was talking about parents knowing, without concretizing a reform. Current legislation recognizes women from the age of 16 the capacity to terminate their pregnancy without the consent of their legal representatives.

He has also announced changes to the euthanasia law, arguing that the role of doctors is secondary. The norm establishes the intervention of a responsible doctor and another consultant, in addition to the prior control of a Guarantee and Evaluation Commission. The procedure includes information on available alternatives and medical checks of compliance with the requirements to access the benefit.

The conversation has also addressed his possible agreements with the far-right Vox and the fake videos generated with artificial intelligence that the PP disseminates. Feijóo has kept open the possibility of governing with Santiago Abascal's party and has assumed responsibility for his party's publications, although he assured that he was unaware of the last video he was asked about beforehand.

The answers on equality have provoked a reply from the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who has reproached him for proposing the disappearance of the ministry and cuts in women's right to decide over their bodies. Gabriel Rufián, spokesperson for Esquerra Republicana in Congress, has shared the video of that passage of the interview with a message addressed to the popular candidate. "If this guy keeps talking, we add an absolute majority," he wrote.