The President stresses that more than half of the self-employed pay 26% less than in 2018

Lower House of Parliament

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, along with the First Vice-President, María Jesús Montero (Pool Congreso)

During his speech at the government control session held in the Lower House of Parliament, the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, pointed out that 55% of self-employed workers pay Social Security contributions 26% lower than those they paid in 2018.

In response to the deputy of the Vox Parliamentary Group, Santiago Abascal, Pedro Sánchez pointed out that two out of three self-employed report an increase in turnover in 2025 compared to 2024 and 70% are confident of closing the year with better results than last year. He also noted that the income from economic activities of sole proprietors has increased by 31% since 2018, which is 15 percentage points above inflation during that period.

The president also reported that the number of people affiliated with Social Security as self-employed workers has increased by 5.4%.

With regard to the amount of the contributions that these workers have to pay to the General Regime for Self-Employed Workers, the president argued that the change introduced in the 2022 reform to bring their contributions closer to their real income was a historic demand of the group and had the support of the main opposition party, employers and unions.

Pedro Sánchez also stressed that the government, with the support of other parliamentary groups, has raised the minimum wage more than ever before: "If today the minimum wage represents 60% of the average wage in our country, it is thanks to the action and political commitment of this government".

On the economic front, the president added that both the debt and the public deficit are being reduced in line with the Gross Domestic Product. And regarding immigration, Pedro Sánchez informed Santiago Abascal that more than 90% of migrants arriving in Spain do so through legal channels and that eight out of ten are European or Latin American.

Strengthening public services

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, during his speech at the question time session in the Lower House of Parliament| Pool Congreso

As he did in his previous appearance before Parliament to report on the state of public services in Spain, the head of the Executive denounced the "deterioration" of these services in some autonomous communities.

The president affirmed before the member of the People's Party Parliamentary Group, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, that the Government's obligation is to strengthen economic growth and reinforce public services, for which it has transferred economic resources to the autonomous communities. However, he asserted that some of them are not using these resources to benefit citizens because their leaders are implementing "a political and ideological project that does not resonate with the majority of Spanish citizens".

As examples, Pedro Sánchez pointed out that two autonomous communities are not allocating state resources to improve public health and that another has not used those resources to prevent fires and improve nursing homes or places in nursery schools.

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• Economy
• Employment
• Equality