“He puts his re-election to the CEOE before his country”

These figures are very far from the demands of the unions (7.5%, if the personal income tax is applied) and especially of the employers, who are asking for an increase lower than this year’s inflation: 1.5%. A position that Yolanda Díaz has disfigured and criticized.

“I regret that Garamendi is putting off a re-election to the CEOE before doing good for his country“, indicated the second vice-president and Minister of Labor, in reference to the president of the employers’ association and the elections which must be held there in 2026.

“This is what confuses everything. And I’m really sorry. Garamendi focuses on the campaign and not on social dialogue,” he insisted. However, he assured that a tripartite pact will be sought in the social dialogue. “I prefer an agreement with the legitimacy that it entails,” he noted.

On the other hand, Díaz clarified, in statements to the media this Friday, that The 2026 increase in the SMI and the reform of its regulations will be carried out separately. In other words, they will use different regulatory vehicles. This prevents the increase in lower wages from being affected by a possible legal challenge to Labor’s promised changes.

A legal war that goes without saying. Especially since Labor affirms that, in the royal decree, the capacity of companies to absorb increases in the SMI through salary supplements will be limited.

“In Spain, there are companies which absorb increases in the SMI through salary supplements.. The result is that the person’s life does not improve with the increases. This cannot continue to happen in Spain,” he said.

The reform will aim, among other things, to limit this. “Let’s correct this great injustice in Spain. The increase in the SMI should not replace the rights that already existed,” he explained.

Labor wants to apply this limitation through a royal decree, which, according to economic sources, is not possible. To implement this measure, the status of workers would have to be modified. And for this it would be necessary to go through Congress, with a royal decree-law or with a bill.