The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in an interview on TVE this Monday, insisted that the PP had “always” revalued pensions “according to the CPI”, despite doing so in 2012, 2013 and 2017 under the In the PP -Governments saw retirees lose purchasing power as pension benefits grew less than the average CPI rate. Feijóo has come to demand a direct rectification from journalist Silvia Intxaurrondo, who questioned his testimony and alluded to the data from those three years. Following the uproar caused by the PP candidate’s false testimony, Feijóo has released two tweets to “clarify” his “inaccurate” information, in which he explains that the PP “every year increases pensions” without to say that according to CPI she did so. what is wrong.
This was the course of the dispute between the PP boss and the TVE journalist:
Feijóo: We always have. Our party has never stopped revaluing pensions according to the CPI. The only party that froze pensions was the PSOE. And by the way, Mr. Sánchez was a deputy. We always have.
Intxaurrondo: That is incorrect, Mr. Feijóo.
f “It’s absolutely right.
YO. They didn’t do it in 2012, 2013, or 2017.
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f I don’t know where you got that from. Again, we have always repriced pensions using the CPI. If the CPI is negative or zero, we even increased it by a quarter point. Therefore, I repeat: check the data.
YO. No, my details are correct, Mr. Feijóo. Neither in 2012 nor in 2013 nor in 2017.
f Good. Since there is a newspaper library, you will check what I tell you. And I’m telling you, if I’m wrong I apologize, and if I am, I hope you say it on this show. Because I repeat: the PP revalued the pensions according to the CPI, and when the CPI was negative or below 0.25, it revalued them by a quarter point. The only party that did not raise pensions was the PSOE. I repeat again. So please correct me if you are wrong.
What does the data say? In 2012, the PP government, with Mariano Rajoy as president, increased pensions by 1%, causing pensioners to lose 1.4% in purchasing power, as the increase was lower than the CPI, which official figures say averaged 2.4% lay from the INE, which can be found here. That year, then-government vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría admitted at a press conference in the Council of Ministers that the executive could not withstand a price hike. “Today the CPI data was released, it is not the final one but the expected one which is at 2.9%. With these figures and taking into account the state of public finances, the government cannot cope with an update of 1.9% due to the situation of the social security fund,” said Sáenz de Santamaría.
Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría during the Council of Ministers press conference on November 30, 2012. Video: EPV
In 2013, the increase for retirees earning less than €1,000 – the majority with whom they gained purchasing power – was 2%, as real annual average inflation was 1.4%. However, those who earned more than 1,000 euros recorded an increase of 1% and thus lost purchasing power.
In 2017, the increase in these benefits was 0.25%, which means that the loss of purchasing power was 1.8% (real annual average inflation was 2%).
After the clash on TVE caused a stir on Twitter, where many users labeled his mistake as ugly, Feijóo posted two tweets to clarify his words, saying: “As I promised, I want to clarify: I reiterate , that the.” @ppopular He never froze pensions, which the PSOE did with Sánchez’ vote. The PP increased pensions every year, but the PSOE did not. While it was easy to freeze them like the PSOE did, we uploaded them too. Unlike Sánchez, whose arrogance would never allow that, I have no problem clarifying a statement when it was inaccurate. We are still waiting for him to deny all his lies in the debate, such as claiming that the PSOE did not freeze pensions. Sources close to the PP leader later explained that although in the interview on TVE had said up to three times: “According to the VPI”.
Unlike Sánchez, whose arrogance would never allow that, I have no problem clarifying a statement when it was inaccurate.
We are still waiting for him to deny all his lies in the debate, such as claiming that the PSOE did not freeze pensions.
— Alberto Núñez Feijóo (@NunezFeijoo) July 17, 2023
The interview sparked another conflict as Feijóo had to withdraw another statement. It is about his accusation to Sánchez that the National Court archived the Pegasus case because of his government’s lack of cooperation, when in fact it was due to Israel’s lack of cooperation. On TVE, Feijóo has used this new conflict to continue to insist that he was right about the pensions reassessment, although he later had to qualify for it as well.
Intxaurrondo. They said that the Pegasus case was closed due to the lack of cooperation from the District President. Two days later he admitted he was wrong. I wonder how a man of his education, his career, his level can spread uncorroborated information that compromises the security of the state.
Feijóo. Look, a guy from my apprenticeship just told you live that the PP upgraded pensions and you say no. It seems that someone is wrong and I have a feeling that you are.
YO. In the Pegasus case, you were the one who admitted you were wrong.
f If I read a telex in the morning or afternoon that tells me that, then maybe I should check more telexes. But that tells me a telex from an authority that may not have been there.
YO. Do you remember which authority issued it?
f No, I don’t remember. In the debate, there are eleven pages full of lies from the governor.
The agencies Efe, Europa Press (EP) and Servimedia, the three most influential Spanish agencies, headlined Israel’s lack of cooperation in their telexes on July 10. “The judge is archiving the Pegasus case due to the ‘absolute’ lack of legal cooperation from Israel,” reads the EFE statement. “The AN [Audiencia Nacional] files a case of espionage against Sánchez with Pegasus and finds up to five break-ins on his phone. He criticizes Israel’s lack of cooperation,” EP wrote. “National court files ‘Pegasus case’ due to lack of cooperation from Israel,” headlined Servimedia. Feijóo not only accused Sánchez of a lack of cooperation with the judiciary in the debate, but also did so the following day at a party event in Badajoz, when personal fact-checking had already shown that this accusation was not true TRUE. Later on Friday, he admitted in an interview on Onda Cero that “maybe it wasn’t right.”
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