Under proposals by Spain’s hard-right party and possible next coalition government member, pensioners would need a private top-up to their state pension.
Spain’s hard-right Vox has outlined plans to privatise the public pension system, arguing that system is unsustainable ahead of a generation of workers set to retire in the near-future.
The party could plausibly become a coalition partner in future right-wing government, meaning it may well incorporate the idea into any future coalition arrangement from within Spain’s right-wing bloc.
With Spaniards heading to the polls in a snap general election on November 29th, the country’s right-wing opposition parties and potential members of the next government (Vox along with the centre-right PP) are now having their policies put under the spotlight.
Now Vox is beginning to reveal its intentions should the party, as the polls suggest is likely, form a government with the PP.
In an interview, Vox MP José María Figaredo opened the door to the privatisation of pensions, something he considers to be a “zombie” system.
“The pension system is a zombie. They’ve run it into the ground,” he said. “In 1998, the Toledo Pact commission accurately identified the system’s weaknesses, and in nearly 30 years no corrective measures have been implemented.”
Figaredo instead proposed a “structural reform towards a mixed model that combines a pay-as-you-go system with individual capitalisation, as other European countries have done successfully.”
This mixed model would see the state contribute a portion and citizens would need to have a private scheme or savings accounts to cover what has hitherto public money.
The hard-right representative also highlighted what he sees as the major economic challenges facing the country in the future: “Pension expenditure, debt, wage costs and energy dependence will be major constraints in the future”.
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In 2026, around 9.5 million people will be receiving a state pension in Spain.
The system is based on a pay-as-you-go model, whereby workers’ contributions finance current benefits.
It includes retirement pensions, permanent disability pensions, widows’ pensions, orphans’ pensions and non-contributory schemes for people on low incomes. T
The average pension stands at €1,374.6 per month, based on figures updated to September this year.
With a generation of workers set for retirement in Spain, there have long been concerns about how Spain’s public pension system will hold up in the future.
This comes as Spain stares down a demographic crisis in the future, with an increasingly ageing population and a welfare system dependent on migration to keep afloat.
Current migration trends suggest that almost all of these jobs will be filled by migrants due to demographic ageing among native Spaniards, making migrants “essential” to meet the demand, experts say.
El presidente del Gobierno y líder socialista, Pedro Sánchez, se ha comprometido este sábado en el primer mitin de la precampaña electoral a “reforzar y mantener” los decretos de vivienda. “Nos corresponde llegar tan lejos como quiera la gente de la calle y la fuerza del voto”, ha afirmado. Sánchez se ha desplazado hasta Dos Hermanas (Sevilla), bastión socialista, para iniciar la precampaña. Por su parte, el líder del Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, ha cargado en su discurso en el mitin de precampaña en Madrid contra Sánchez, y ha afirmado: “Le vamos a echar de la forma que menos le gusta a la mafia: con el voto de la gente”. Por su parte, la presidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, ha continuado alimentando el fantasma del pucherazo electoral y ha afirmado que Sánchez “no es de fiar y es un auténtico tramposo”. “Va a intentar hacer todas las trampas que pueda”, ha afirmado la presidenta popular. ERC y Bildu han comunicado que irán de nuevo en coalición al Senado de cara a las elecciones del 29 de noviembre. Ambas formaciones han enviado este sábado un comunicado explicando su decisión de repetir coalición para la Cámara Alta como una “herramienta para defender los derechos nacionales de País Vasco y Cataluña y hacer frente al bloque reaccionario”. Esta mañana, arranca la precampaña con dos mítines de los principales partidos.
Ucrania mantiene su pulso contra la industria petrolera rusa después de que el presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, anunciase al mundo un acuerdo con su homólogo ruso, Vladímir Putin, para que el Kremlin aumente su oferta de diésel al mundo, algo que Moscú ya filtró que haría, por su propia cuenta, días antes. Los drones ucranios alcanzaron por la noche las instalaciones petroleras de Novoshájtinsk, surtidoras de combustible para el ejército ruso en su ofensiva sobre la región de Donbás, en el este ucranio, y un importante enlace para su exportación de crudo desde la región fronteriza de Rostov del Don.
Spain’s controversial housing decrees are back, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election for 29 November, gambling that public anger over housing will save his government.
Just three days after Parliament rejected the government’s two emergency housing decrees on Friday 2 October, Sánchez announced a snap general election. His government then promptly reintroduced revised versions of the same decrees, taking advantage of parliamentary procedures that could allow them to survive despite having been rejected by the full Congress.
As I argued in my previous article (linked above), the decrees appeared to be as much about political positioning as housing policy. Events since then have only strengthened that impression.
Housing becomes the election battleground
Sánchez has been Prime Minister for eight years, during which Spain’s housing crisis has steadily worsened, as is clear from this house price chart showing when he came to power and when he introduced his Housing Law (Ley de Vivienda) of 2023, after which house prices really took off.
With corruption scandals, controversy over events in Ceuta and unfavourable opinion polls threatening his political survival, the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen from her long-term home in Madrid provided an opportunity to change the political conversation.
Her death in hospital on 7 October has made the issue even more emotionally charged, with demonstrations and accusations against the property investors and political parties held responsible for her eviction.
Sánchez now appears determined to fight the election on housing, but not on his government’s record or the underlying causes of the crisis. Instead, he wants to frame it as a simple moral choice between ordinary people, whom he claims to defend, and property speculators or “vulture funds”, supposedly protected by his political opponents. This tweet by his Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez sums it up nicely. “Either with the people, or with the vultures” she says.
O con la gente, o con los buitres.
Por la vivienda, la sanidad, la educación… por tu Estado del Bienestar. Vamos a las urnas para seguir avanzando con más fuerza. https://t.co/g3RZlAgjFL
The two decrees fit neatly into this narrative. Drafted under pressure from his coalition partners on the hard left and militant tenants’ unions, they would significantly strengthen tenants’ rights at the expense of landlords, especially the second decree, which would make it much harder or more expensive to recover possession at the end of a rental contract.
Their rejection by Parliament gave Sánchez the opportunity to accuse his opponents of siding with “speculators” against vulnerable tenants. Whether he deliberately engineered that defeat is impossible to prove, but the political advantage is obvious. He can now try to energise his base, attract voters from parties further to the left and shift attention away from his government’s record.
It is a clever political gamble, but one that reduces a complex housing crisis to a simplistic contest between good and evil, with little room for serious debate about what might actually work.
The decrees return, and uncertainty grows
The government has reintroduced both decrees, including extended eviction protections, tighter restrictions on landlords and investors, and automatic renewal of residential tenancies with substantial fines for landlords who refuse to renew without an accepted reason.
The first decree came into force on 8 October, whilst the second is scheduled to take effect on 15 November. Both still require approval by the Permanent Deputation, the smaller parliamentary body that operates whilst Congress is dissolved. The first might now pass despite having been rejected by the full Parliament, though the second remains less likely to survive. The manoeuvre has prompted accusations of constitutional fraud.
Opinion polls currently point towards a victory for the PP and Vox, but Sánchez is gambling that his housing campaign will change the result. If the opposition wins, it may reverse the surviving decrees. If Sánchez stays in power, further intervention in the rental market looks likely.
Either way, Spain now faces an extended period of uncertainty over housing policy until after the election and the formation of a new government. Landlords, investors and developers have good reason to put decisions on hold until they know which rules they will be operating under. The truth is that, right now, nobody really knows what the rules are or will be, and that includes a measure to introduce VAT on holiday-lettings (more on that another day). That can only make the housing situation worse in the meantime.
More homes, less political theatre
Whoever wins the election, Spain’s housing crisis will not be solved overnight. It will take at least five years, probably longer, of sustained reform to increase supply where people want to live. That means freeing up land, simplifying planning and building regulations, making better use of urban space, investing in transport and utility infrastructure, and deregulating the rental market to encourage private landlords to supply and maintain more homes.
Such reforms require political courage, investor confidence and patience, none of which offers the immediate electoral rewards of rent freezes, eviction bans or restrictions on investors. It is doubtful that any political bloc has the policies or determination to deliver what is needed against resistance from entrenched interests. Even a more market-friendly government might achieve little more than modest improvements.
If the current Socialist and hard-left coalition remains in power, however, I fear the outlook will be considerably worse. Its policies risk further discouraging private investment and shrinking the quantity and quality of rental housing. Sitting tenants would enjoy greater protection, but those looking for somewhere to live would face an increasingly difficult market.
And as the shortage persists and public frustration grows, the temptation to blame convenient scapegoats will only increase. Property investors, foreign buyers and second-home owners are obvious targets, even though penalising them will do little to address the underlying shortage.
With housing now an election battleground, political theatre looks set to take precedence over practical solutions. Whoever wins, Spain faces years of difficult reform at best, or more policies that make the problem worse at worst.
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