Congress has rejected this Thursday a legal modification proposed by Podemos so that those who have contributed for 40 or more years can access early retirement without suffering reduction coefficients or cuts in their pension amount.
The initiative, which Podemos has defended for years, was included in an amendment presented by the purple party to the law that will allow licensed professionals to transfer their economic rights to the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA).
In the vote on said amendment, both PSOE and PP opted for a vote against, while Vox abstained. The rest of the groups supported the proposal, including Sumar, the socialists' government partner, as well as Junts, UPN, and Coalición Canaria.
The result clashes with that of a motion debated in November 2025 which called for the exact same measure, although at the time it did not have the force of law or a binding nature, but was limited to urging the Executive to act. On that occasion, the PSOE did align itself with Podemos's position.
The Government calculated the budgetary impact of the reform proposed by Podemos at 3.358 billion euros: 1.345 billion would correspond to the elimination of coefficients in voluntary early retirements and 2.013 billion to involuntary early retirements.
Belarra's Reaction and Criticism of the PSOE
The outcome of the vote has unleashed the indignation of Podemos's general secretary, Ione Belarra: "The PP and the PSOE vote against people retiring who have contributed for more than 40 years being able to collect their full pension. Bipartisanship against retirees, again, like in 2011, like always. Weapons yes, pensions no. This is unbearable," she denounced on her X account.
Before the start of the debate and the vote on the amendments that were moving forward, Belarra had argued before the press that the PSOE should place itself "on the side of the people" and support the proposal to correct an "absolutely unfair" situation that, as she pointed out, affects about 900,000 people with more than forty years of contributions.
"I believe that those who voted for the PSOE on July 23, 2023, would understand that today the PSOE voted against. If there is money for rearmament, if there is money for weapons and tanks, at a minimum, there must also be money for retirees," Belarra stressed, recalling that the socialists have always resisted moving forward with this measure.
During the debate in the Plenary session, the Podemos deputy Martina Velarde also reiterated the request for support from the other groups and rejected arguments such as the need to take the issue to the Pact of Toledo commission: "When things want to be done, they are done," she stated from the tribune.