The goat always heads for the mountains. The Spanish proverb collection is very rich. It means that you cannot fight against your instincts and your own nature. In the end, when it comes down to it, innate tendencies will always show themselves. This is what happens to the PSOE in its relationship with the group of people who retire before the ordinary age, who have long contribution careers and have their pensions penalized for life, as a sort of life sentence.
Indeed, the PSOE, contradicting its instinct and nature, has voted on several occasions, in different institutions, for the repeal of these penalties. But every time it has done so, it has taken great care to ensure that these were non-binding votes. That is to say, it has turned its support into a kind of "toast to the sun," which allowed it to continue deceiving that group with vain promises. This is what it has done, for example, by voting YES to PNLs approved by regional parliaments, diputaciones, etc., and in November 2025 to a motion presented by Podemos. However, it is in binding votes that its unmistakable real instinct emerges. That is why, in the 2021 pension reform, it ensured that the penalty for long careers not only remained as it was, but also increased in the periods when, overwhelmingly, people used to retire (months close to their anniversary date).
This Wednesday, June 11, the PSOE group has done it again. It has once again shown its innate harmful instinct. It has revealed its great hypocrisy with that group. In Congress, it voted NO to the elimination of penalties in a binding amendment presented by Podemos to a bill on mutual societies for their transfer to Social Security. The serious part of the matter is that the text of the aforementioned amendment is exactly the same as that of the aforementioned (non-binding) motion of November 2025, to which the PSOE voted YES. That is to say, six months ago it voted YES and now it has voted NO to an identical text. It is the perfect example of political schizophrenia, or malice? The clear example of the farce and the mockery of the group with long contribution careers. What credibility and reliability can this way of proceeding offer?
The "excuse" of the Pact of Toledo
How have the other political groups behaved in this vote on the 11th? Well, all of them have voted exactly the same as they voted, for the same text, in the November motion. That is having coherence. All of them? No. Actually, no. The PP has voted NO, when in the previous motion it had voted abstention. The PP's justification for this incomprehensible change of vote is that they claim Podemos' amendment is "an intrusive amendment" and that "it will have its moment."
It is a reference to the fact that this issue should be dealt with in the Pacto de Toledo. An excuse. In short, all groups have voted YES to the elimination of penalties, with the exception of PSOE and PP, who voted NO, and VOX, who abstained on both occasions. If the PSOE had maintained its initial position in November, this amendment would have gone ahead and, consequently, more than 900,000 people with 40 or more years of contributions would no longer have their pensions penalized and the discrimination suffered by this group would have ended. The PSOE had the opportunity to end an unbearable injustice and indignity. It had enough support. It had the votes. It did not want to do it. This affront will haunt them. They have no excuse whatsoever. Hypocrisy is paid for.
After this slamming door by the PSOE and also the PP, the situation for the elimination of penalties has become complicated at a political level in Spain. These two majority groups demand that, at best, this issue be transferred to the Monitoring Commission of the Pacto de Toledo. They probably consider it the best way to "put this matter to sleep." A way to "beat around the bush", for which both groups have special mastery.
Another possibility is that they use the Pacto de Toledo and an eventual Social Dialogue Table to pull out of their sleeve a ridiculous supplement in amount and in "benefited" people to try to divide the group (they already did it in the 2021 reform).
"Letting time pass"
On many occasions, it gives the feeling that all they intend is for time to pass and for the problem to be resolved simply by the death of all the people who make up the group. A natural way to extinguish the problem is for the problem to disappear by extinction of the outraged. It seems they wait and wish for our death. A shame.
It is clear that hypocritical behaviors like those of the PSOE and also the PP are causing a growing discredit and detachment of citizens towards politics. Probably, that discontent influences important future movements in voting intention. I do not rule it out. It is a clamor on social networks. For now, these votes have served the collective to know who IS in agreement with eliminating penalties and who has lied to them repeatedly, time and time again. The ballot boxes can reflect this generalized state of dissatisfaction. There are 900,000 affected families. Survey companies will have a hard time in the next elections to get the voting results right.
Each political group must be responsible for its actions and inactions. Political hypocrisy must eventually be paid for.
I understand that the affected people and the pensioner associations that represent them, especially ASJUBI40, which has been championing this demand for more than 10 years, will develop an action plan for the coming weeks in order to give an adequate response to these unworthy behaviors. Many people will be watching. I hope they do not let themselves be bewitched and enchanted by promises from politicians or ex-politicians because, as I said, a leopard never changes its spots. Never.
This is a matter of JUSTICE and DIGNITY.
*Biography: Born in 1958 in Barcelona, Luis Ortiga holds a degree in Economics and Business Sciences (from the 5th year of high school, combining work and evening studies). He began his working life at the age of 14. He worked as a "Bellboy" in a financial institution. He has developed his professional career in three financial institutions and in a chemical-pharmaceutical company.
Ortiga was affected by dismissal for objective (organizational) reasons at the age of 61. From SEPE he did not receive a single job offer in the two years prior to early retirement. He contributed up to 45 years to Social Security, in addition to the year and 2 months he had to leave work and studies to join compulsory military service.
Today he is a grassroots member of ASJUBI40, an association that fights for the repeal of reduction coefficients that penalize the pension of people who retire before the ordinary age and who have long contribution histories. Luis Ortiga says he is not speaking only for himself, as it is "an issue that affects more than 900,000 people and - he states - my case is just one more".