At a rally in Ponferrada, Santiago Abascal said any sacrifices under a government involving Vox would fall on political parties and unions, along with groups receiving subsidies. He also said pensions would be paid.
The dispute over pension policy has become part of the campaign after Vox deputy José María Figaredo said pensions should be privatised through a mixed system. The Government criticised the party for several days. At a rally in Ponferrada, León, Santiago Abascal rejected the suggestion that pensions were at risk under Vox. Figaredo had called for a structural shift towards a mixed model, combining the existing pay-as-you-go system, where current contributions help fund pensions being paid now, with an individually capitalised component that accumulates and invests savings for future benefits.
Abascal said the pressure should fall on political parties and unions, as well as groups receiving subsidies. He argued that ordinary people had already borne enough hardship under the current Government. If a future government depended on Vox, he said, sacrifices would target those benefiting from what he described as corrupt politics and privilege.
He also accused unions of remaining silent for eight years before calling a general strike against the opposition. On 19 October, several unions and civic organisations, including CCOO, UGT, CGT, CNT, Co.Bas and Intersindical, registered a call for a general strike on 11 November. Its stated demands cover housing, wages, pensions and public services. Abascal said the next election campaign, scheduled for 29 November, would be marked by violence, pressure and misinformation from the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez. Those were his allegations. He offered no evidence for them in the remarks reported at the rally.
On pensions, Abascal argued that attacks on self-employed workers and people who create jobs, along with excessive public spending and debt, posed the danger. He said pensions would be paid, while accusing Sánchez of seeking to control the country and govern with separatists. The party’s dispute with the Government follows Figaredo’s remarks on a mixed pension system. Vox’s economic programme proposes beginning the capitalisation of a public pension fund using private-return criteria and points towards a mixed model inspired by Sweden. On 15 October, Vox’s congressional representative Pepa Millán said the party ruled nothing out on reform while insisting that pensions would be paid whatever it took. The proposal is a structural change to the system, not an announced plan for immediate, complete privatisation.
The earlier reporting on PP-Vox Senate talks concerned possible joint lists for the Senate. At Ponferrada, Abascal focused instead on the conditions he says Vox would set if a government needed to rely on the party.
