The increase in pensions in 2026. The PP has announced that it will vote against the omnibus decree that includes the increase in benefits, given that the Government has done the opposite of what the main opposition party requested: it has mixed the validation of the increase with other measures that the popular reject. It’s the same reason why Junts slides.
Pensioners have already noticed the general increase in their January payrolls, paid in recent days, but it is not clear that this is the amount they will receive in February. Depending on what happens this Tuesday in the Congress of Deputies and in the coming days, three possible scenarios for the benefits of .
Scenario 1: the text is approved
The omnibus decree goes to the point where the Government classifies it as a “social shield.” It grants this substance for the measures it extends, such as the prohibition of cutting off basic supplies to vulnerable people, the moratorium on evictions for this same group or the advance retirement for forest firefighters. Both PP and Junts asked the Executive that the Government not insist on this mixed bag, that the pensions be separate, but in the end everything is mixed.
Neither the Government nor the Socialist Parliamentary Group can at this point chop up the decree, approved in the Council of Ministers on December 23. At most, they can announce future measures that will satisfy some of these parties and help them support the bus. They could even propose these policies in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, but it is not the approach with which the Executive works. When the Government decided to approve the royal decree law with everything mixed (just before the Christmas holidays), the PP that with that formula would reject the text.
Scenario 2: the decree falls, but it is not noticeable in the pensions
If this scenario were to occur, it would be similar to the one that occurred just a year ago. In January, Alberto Núñez because the Executive had included other measures such as the transfer of a mansion in Paris to the PNV. Given the reactions to that vote against, the leader of the PP rectified and his party ratified the second decree presented by the Government, which also mixed measures of all kinds but was less broad.
The second decree was approved before the February payroll was paid, so pensioners did not notice the momentary drop in the increase. If the decree falls and the Executive finds a solution in time, the scenario from then would be repeated.
Scenario 3. The decree falls and materializes in the payrolls
This possibility is what enters unknown territory. The initial rejection of the revaluation that occurred last year had never occurred before, but the Executive amended it in time. If the Government does not present a new initiative on time (payrolls are paid around the last third of each month), pensioners would return to receiving the same amount as in 2025 on their February payrolls. This situation would last as long as the increase blockade lasted.
It should be noted that the Government can approve a new royal decree law with the increase in pensions whenever it pleases. That is, the Executive can apply the increase again and it would remain in effect until it faces parliamentary validation, which would settle it or overthrow it again. To do so without mixing the increase with other measures, as announced by PP and Junts, .
