The retirement without cuts after 40 years of contributions surpasses its first vote with the turn of the PSOE

The proposal you are referring to is the “Law Proposal for penalty-free retirement” (Congress of Deputies, file number 122/000105), registered by Podemos so that, after 40 years of contributions, no reduction coefficients or cuts are applied to the pension of those who retire early. This initiative has already been admitted for processing by the Board and has a published text and government response.

According to the parliamentary record, the following has happened so far in the Congress:

• 05/31/2024: the text of the law proposal is published in the Congress Bulletin.
• 09/06/2024: the Government sends its response (does not block processing).
• 09/07/2024: the Board of the Congress admits the law proposal for processing and sends it to the Plenary to decide whether to take it into consideration or not.

From that moment, the initiative is pending the Congress Plenary to debate and vote on its taking into consideration. Parliamentary press (for example, Demócrata on September 17 and 20, 2026) reports that:

• Podemos has decided to bring this law proposal back to the Plenary, after having kept it “on ice” to avoid exhausting its quota.
• In the week of September 22, 2026, the Plenary must decide whether to formally open its parliamentary processing.

With this context, the next steps in the processing depend on what happens in that vote on taking into consideration.

1. Immediate step: taking into consideration in the Congress Plenary

• The Plenary debates the law proposal (defense by the proposing group and turn of the other groups).
• A vote is held on whether the Chamber accepts to continue with its processing or not.

If the Plenary rejects the taking into consideration, the law proposal lapses and its parliamentary processing ends there: no amendment period is opened nor does it go to committee.

If the Plenary approves the taking into consideration, the ordinary phase of the legislative procedure opens:

2. After taking into consideration: work in the Congress committee

• Referral to the competent committee (usually Labor, Social Economy, Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations).
• Opening of the amendment period:
  • Amendments to the entirety (return or alternative text).
  • Amendments to the articles to modify the text that eliminates the reduction coefficients after 40 years of contributions or its retroactive application.
• Appointment of a working group: a small group of deputies studies the text and amendments and prepares a working report with a transactional text.
• Committee report: the committee debates the report, may introduce additional changes, and approves a report.

At this point, two scenarios may occur:

• If the committee has full legislative competence and the Chamber has agreed to it for this case, it could approve the law directly.
• The most common in a pension reform is that the report is sent to the Congress Plenary for a final vote in the Congress, after a debate article by article or by blocks.

3. Second reading in the Senate

Once approved in the Congress, the law proposal is sent to the Senate:

• The Senate can:
  • Not introduce changes: the text would be ready for promulgation.
  • Approve partial amendments, which would return the modified text to the Congress.
  • Approve a veto (global rejection of the text).
• If there are amendments, the Congress decides whether to accept or reject them by simple majority.
• If there is a veto, the Congress can lift it by absolute majority in a first vote or, after two months, by simple majority.

4. Final approval and entry into force

Once both Chambers have approved, the final steps are:

• Definitive approval of the text by the General Courts.
• Sanction and promulgation by the King.
• Publication in the Official State Gazette, with the entry into force date provided by the law itself (for this initiative, the draft establishes validity from its publication).

Until this chain of milestones is completed — taking into consideration, committee, final vote in the Congress, passage through the Senate, and publication in the Official State Gazette — the elimination of the reduction coefficients after 40 years of contributions will remain only a proposal in process, not an effective change in the legal framework.

The Labor, Social Economy, Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations Committee is the permanent legislative committee of the Congress competent in matters of pensions and Social Security. When a pension reform is processed via law (government bill or law proposal), this committee is the central body of the technical-parliamentary work, but always under the primacy of the Plenary, which ultimately decides the content of the law.

1. What phases of the legislative procedure does the Committee assume

In a pension reform that arrives at the Congress as a government bill, the Rules establish (art. 109 et seq.) that the Board of the Congress:

• Orders the publication of the text.
• Opens the period for submitting amendments.
• Refers the bill to the competent committee by subject, which will be the Labor, Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations Committee.

From that moment, the committee assumes several key functions:

• Management of amendments to the articles (art. 110): amendments are submitted “to the Committee Board”, which qualifies and orders their debate. They include deletions, modifications, additions, new provisions, etc.
• Appointment and work of the working group (art. 113): the committee appoints within itself a Working Group that, “in view of the text and amendments”, drafts a report within an ordinary period of fifteen days, extendable by the Committee Board when the complexity of the reform advises it.
• Article-by-article debate in the committee itself (art. 114): based on the working group report, the committee discusses each provision of the pension reform, with intervention turns for those who have submitted amendments and committee members.
• Admission of new transactional or technical amendments (art. 114.3): during the debate, the Committee Board may admit new amendments that bring positions closer among those already submitted, as well as technical amendments (errors, terminological adjustments, etc.).
• Approval of the report (art. 116): at the end, the committee approves a report on the pension reform bill, which it sends to the Presidency of the Congress for elevation to the Plenary.

Additionally, according to arts. 40 to 45, the committee may:

• Call hearings (art. 44): request the presence of Government members, high Social Security officials, authorities, civil servants and experts to inform and advise on the reform.
• Request information and documentation from the Government and public administrations about the impact and background of the reform.

2. Limits regarding the Plenary and margin of text modification

Although the committee has a very intense role, its power is limited by the Plenary:

• The Plenary may hold a totality debate (art. 112) on the pension reform if there are amendments to the entirety, being able to return the text to the Government or substitute it with an alternative text before it is processed in committee.
• The committee report does not close the discussion: groups may reserve for the Plenary the amendments and minority reports that have been defended and rejected in committee (art. 117), so the Plenary can reopen issues already debated.
• In the Plenary, new votes occur on articles and amendments; the definitive version of the reform is the one voted there, not the initial report of the Labor Committee.
• If, after the amendments approved in Plenary, the text is incongruent or unclear, the Board may return it to the committee to make a simple “harmonious drafting” (art. 119), without altering the substantive decisions of the Plenary.

Regarding the margin of modification, within its work the committee may:

• Incorporate or reject amendments that substantially change the content of the pension reform (retirement age, revaluation formula, contribution periods, etc.).
• Introduce transactional amendments resulting from negotiation among groups.
• Reorder, technically improve and clarify the text.

However, these decisions are always subject to:

• The Government’s consent for amendments that increase expenditure or reduce Social Security income (art. 111).
• The subsequent review by the Plenary, which may correct, suppress or add elements to what the committee approved.

3. Relationship with the Government and the Toledo Pact Committee

In pension matters, the Government:

• Is normally the promoter of reform bills, which it sends to this committee for processing.
• May participate in its sessions: Government members may attend with voice and, if formally members, also with vote (art. 40.3).
• Responds to information requests and consultations on amendments with budgetary impact.

On the other hand, the Toledo Pact Committee is also a Congress committee, specialized in monitoring the pension system and elaborating consensus recommendations. Its conclusions usually serve as a political basis for pension reforms. In practice:

• The Toledo Pact formulates non-binding recommendations on sustainability, sufficiency and equity of the system.
• The Government, when designing the reform, and the Labor Committee, when processing it, usually take those recommendations as a reference framework for the law’s content.
• The articulation occurs via hearings, reports and debates: the consensus positions in the Toledo Pact are politically transferred to the legislative work of the Labor Committee.

In summary, the Labor Committee is the space where the “legislative engineering” of a pension reform is done (amendments, working group, report, hearings), but the ultimate decision-making power lies with the Government (in budgetary matters and initiative) and, above all, with the Congress Plenary, which approves the final text of the law.

Alberto Mayoral de Lamo is the current spokesperson of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Labor, Social Economy, Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations Committee of the Congress of Deputies. His trajectory combines militancy and responsibilities in the PSOE, previous experience in the Junta of Andalusia, and a profile closely linked to education and culture.

Born in Almería in 1983, Mayoral holds a degree in History and has developed part of his professional career as a Secondary Education teacher. That teaching and humanistic background is highlighted in his public biography as one of the traits explaining his interest in educational, cultural, and social policies. Within Andalusian socialism, he is identified as a PSOE-A cadre with sensitivity for issues of equal opportunities, access to culture, and defense of public services.

Before reaching national politics, he held a significant position in the Junta of Andalusia: he was Director General of Cultural Innovation and the Book between 2015 and 2019. From that general directorate, he promoted cultural policies in the Andalusian autonomous scope, with special attention to fostering reading, supporting the publishing sector, and modernizing cultural equipment and initiatives. That stage in the Andalusian executive constitutes his main administrative management experience prior to the jump to national politics.

In the current legislature, Mayoral is a deputy in the Congress integrated into the Socialist Parliamentary Group. Parliamentary records show him linked to the PSOE (parliamentary group identified as PSOE) and assigned to the Socialist Group in the Lower House, where he acts as an active author. There is no record of previous experience as a senator or other mandates in the Upper House: his entire parliamentary career is situated in the Congress of Deputies.

His central position in the labor and social protection agenda is reflected in the positions he holds in committees. The most relevant is his role as spokesperson in the Labor, Social Economy, Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations Committee, a responsibility he has held since April 25, 2024. From that position, he channels the PSOE’s stance in debates on labor legislation, working conditions, social economy, pensions, and migration policies, and has become one of the socialist reference voices in these matters.

Besides that main spokesperson role, he accumulates other parliamentary responsibilities. He is deputy spokesperson in the Culture Committee since December 15, 2023, which links to his previous experience in the Andalusian cultural field. He is also a member of the Education, Vocational Training and Sports Committee, also since December 2023, where he participates in monitoring educational and sports policies. Since January 28, 2025, he is a member of the Committee for monitoring and evaluation of the Toledo Pact agreements, a key body for the reform and sustainability of the pension system.

In the more technical sphere of legislative activity, he serves as substitute rapporteur in the Subcommittee related to the Athlete’s Statute (file 154/5) since November 12, 2024, which also places him in debates linked to sport and regulation of professional activity in that field. Previously, he was a member of the International Cooperation for Development Committee from December 2023 to January 2025, broadening his field of work to cooperation and development policies.

Regarding internal party organizational responsibilities, consulted sources confirm his membership in the PSOE and, specifically, his affiliation to the Andalusian PSOE (PSOE-A), but do not record a specific organizational position — such as secretariat or internal spokesperson — in the party’s leadership bodies. Where he clearly projects himself is in the institutional sphere: first as a high-ranking official of the Junta of Andalusia and, currently, as a socialist deputy and parliamentary spokesperson in the Congress.

On social media and in his most recent public activity, Mayoral frequently defends the Government’s labor policies and pension revaluation, as well as highlighting the results of the labor reform and the protection of workers’ and self-employed rights. This message line is consistent with his position as socialist spokesperson in the Labor Committee and with the PSOE’s general line on employment and social protection.

In summary, Alberto Mayoral de Lamo is a PSOE leader with roots in Andalusian socialism, historical training and teaching experience, who has gone through autonomous cultural management and today concentrates his political weight in the Congress as socialist spokesperson in the Labor Committee and a prominent member of the Culture, Education, and Toledo Pact committees.