• While the French left hammers its opposition to the pension reform project defended by Elisabeth Borne, Internet users argue that the left-wing government currently in power in Spain would have lowered the legal retirement age.

  • This reform actually dates from 2011, under the socialist government of José Luis Zapatero.

  • It provides for an extension of the duration of contributions, which still remains lower than the durations necessary in France to have a full pension.

Would the left-wing government currently in power in Spain do like Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne, who want to push back the legal retirement age?

This is what several messages published on social networks suggest.

A tweet relayed more than 500 times claims that “the Spanish socialist government, allied with Podemos (LFI), raises the legal retirement age to 66 years and 4 months”.

On January 2, Stéphane Vojetta, Renaissance deputy representing the French established in Spain, also recalled this decline in the age of departure among our neighbors, without however making a direct link with the current Spanish government.

"You won't read it in the tweets of NUPES, which prefers to look at the pretty side of the coin," he explained.

As of January 1, the legal retirement age in Spain will be 66 years and 4 months, and the pension will now be calculated on the basis of the last 25 years compared to 15 until then.

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The reform was not passed by the current Spanish government, but in 2011, under the impetus of the socialist government of José Luis Zapatero.

And it is since 2013 that the retirement age is increasing.

This law provides for a gradual increase in the retirement age, from 65 years in 2011 to 67 years in 2027. This year, the retirement age is postponed to 66 years and 4 months.

Since 2014, the legal age has been raised by one month each year, reaching 67 in 2017.

This year, Spaniards who want to leave before the legal age will have a full pension if they have contributed for thirty-seven years and six months.

Like the retirement age, this period of contribution allowing to leave before the expiry of the legal age is gradually extended, to reach 38 years and six months of contribution in 2027. In France, employees must have contributed to the minimum 41 years and six months if they were born between 1955 and 1957. This period gradually extends to 43 years for all those born after 1972.

The period used to calculate the amount of the pension has also been extended, from 15 years to 25 years.

The law provides that certain workers, such as firefighters or bullfighting professionals, will be able to continue to retire earlier, details the Spanish Social Security website.



If the effective retirement age has been increasing since 2006, according to a 2020 report from the Bank of Spain highlighted by our Spanish colleagues from Newtral, 40% of retirement requests were made that year to an age below the legal age.

In 2010, the Spanish Minister of the Economy defended this pension reform project, explaining that retirees received their pension longer due to the increase in life expectancy.

This reform had aroused opposition in the country.

The legal retirement age had not been changed since 1919.

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