Frente Amplio has proposed setting the maximum retirement age at 65 years and guaranteeing that no pension falls below the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI), currently situated at 1,221 euros per month. This was announced by his candidate for the Presidency of the Government, Ada Colau, during a demonstration in defense of public pensions held last Saturday, October 24 in Madrid, where he also said that retirees’ benefits should rise at the same rate as the minimum wage.
A couple of proposals that are part of the electoral program that the coalition has presented for these next general elections which will be held on November 29. A political group that includes Izquierda Unida, Movimiento Sumar, Más Madrid and los Comuns. The training believes that each of these measures would cost approximately 10 billion euros annually.
Regarding pensions, Colau has defended that retirees should also benefit from improvements in the minimum wage. “If we are raising the SMI because the cost of living does not stop increasing and salaries have to continue increasing, the logical thing is that pensions rise at the same rate as the SMI,” he pointed out.
To justify this proposal, Frente Amplio assures that currently 4.6 million pensioners receive less than 1,221 euros per month, while two million receive less than 900 euros and two out of every three female pensioners do not reach 1,000 euros per month. For this reason, they consider that establishing a minimum pension equivalent to the SMI would also contribute to reducing inequality between men and women.
His idea is to recover retirement at 65 years old compared to the 67 expected for 2027
The second measure seeks to establish “in a clear and forceful manner” 65 years as the maximum retirement age, regardless of whether the worker has reached certain contribution periods.
This proposal would mean modifying the retirement calendar in force in Spain, since as of January 1, 2027, it will be necessary to have 38 years and six months of contributions to be able to retire at age 65 without age penalties. Those who do not reach that period must wait until age 67 to access ordinary retirement, as established by the General Social Security Law.
In this way, 2027 will mark the end of the progressive calendar for increasing the retirement age that began in 2013. Currently, in 2026, the ordinary age is set at 66 years and ten months for those who have contributed less than 38 years and three months.
Frente Amplio considers it necessary to reverse this delay, since, according to the data it provides, the real average retirement age has gone from just under 64 years in 2012 to more than 65.4 years in 2026.
How Frente Amplio intends to finance these measures
To face the nearly 20,000 million euros annually that both proposals would cost, the coalition proposes that “large companies and fortunes pay their fair share.”
Specifically, it proposes establishing an effective minimum taxation for large companies and a 2% tax on assets exceeding one million euros to finance the increase in minimum pensions.
On the other hand, to recover retirement at age 65, it proposes progressively eliminating the maximum contribution cap, with which it estimates raising between 7,000 and 8,500 million euros, and reinforcing the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) through additional contributions from the most automated companies.
Social Security will cut the pension by 10% for workers with 40 years of contributions who retire two years early from 2027, but only if they exceed the maximum
National Police and Civil Guard go to the European Parliament to demand a decent retirement and that they be recognized as a risky profession
However, at the moment these are electoral proposals and not approved measures, so their application would depend on the results of the elections and the parliamentary support that the party obtains.