90 minutes of debate divided into three blocks: economy, social policies and state and post-election pacts. More than a hundred phrases that can be verified.
The Maldita.es team and the Verificat team have worked together, within the framework of Comprobado.es, to be more effective in our efforts to expose lies in politics through fact-checking. Below are the verifications of the debate on politics, employment, economy and taxation, gender violence, immigration and climate.
Abascal: “With the patriotism of Bildu, that highly respectable political force, you have approved a labor reform”
FALSE
EH Bildu voted against the labor reform in the vote that took place on February 3, 2022 in Congress and in which it was definitively approved. The PP, Vox, ERC, PNV, Junts, the CUP, Foro, UPN and BNG also voted against (174 votes against in total).
SÁNCHEZ: “The public health law, the public education law, the dignity of pensions, the National Dependency System, the law to combat gender violence, the law on equal marriage, the law on equality between men and women, the LGTBI law, the modernized pregnancy termination law and the euthanasia law […] all have had the Popular Party and Vox vote against […] they have even appealed all these laws to the Constitutional Court.”
FALSE
Pedro Sánchez lists 9 laws and then affirms that the PP has voted against all of them and that “they have even appealed to the Constitutional Court all those laws.” Since Sánchez speaks in the plural in the second statement, it is difficult to know if he is referring only to the PP or also to Vox. In 3 of the cases no appeal was filed before the TC,
In the case of the “public health law”, we have considered Law 14/1986, of April 25, General Health. In this case neither PP nor Vox existed, but Alianza Popular voted in favor and no appeal was filed. Due to the similarity of names and concepts, we have also verified Law 33/2011, of October 4, General Public Health; and Royal Decree-Law 7/2018, of July 27, on universal access to the National Health System. None of the three was appealed before the TC. The 2011 law was approved in commission, with no record of the Popular Party’s position. In 2018, in the validation of the Royal Decree-law, the PP voted against.
The law that establishes the National Dependency System, Law 39/2006, of December 14, for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for people in a situation of dependency, was not appealed by the PP, which voted in favor in Congress and in the Senate. Vox did not exist in that year.
The law to combat gender violence, Organic Law 1/2004, of December 28, on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, was not appealed by the Popular Party either. The law was approved unanimously. It was the head of Criminal Court 4 of Murcia who raised a question of unconstitutionality before the TC.
Here you can see a detailed table with the position of the Popular Party and Vox in each of the mentioned laws.
SÁNCHEZ: “Never before have we had so many young employees and the lowest youth unemployment rate”
FALSE
The youth unemployment rate among young people (16 to 29 years old) is 22.62% and the number of employed is 2,870,000 people, according to the figures for the first quarter of 2023 from the Active Population Survey of the National Statistics Institute. However, both of Pedro Sánchez’s statements are false.
Regarding the youth unemployment rate: the lowest figure in the historical series was that registered in the second quarter of 2007, when the youth unemployment rate was 12.46%, according to the Active Population Survey.
Regarding employment: the largest number of young employees under 30 years of age in the historical series was in the third quarter of 2006 with 5,042,000 employed persons, according to the Active Population Survey.
DÍAZ: “We have more workers in agriculture than ever: 750,000”
FALSE
Yolanda Diaz has affirmed that “we have more workers in agriculture than ever, 750,000”. It’s false. It is true that Spain currently has 748,200 people employed in agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing, according to the latest data published from the Active Population Survey corresponding to the first quarter of 2023. However, this is not the highest figure in history, rather there are several quarters since 2008 that recorded a greater number of employed persons in said sector. Since data is available, the quarter that registered the highest number of employed persons in agriculture was the first quarter of 2008 (870,100 employed persons).
RIFIRRAFE ABOUT THE PROHIBITION OF STRIKES: While Díaz tells the Vox leader that “in their program what they defend is […] to prohibit strikes”; Abascal insists that the Sumar candidate: “She has once again told lies about our program absolutely. She has said that we want to ban strikes and it is a lie”.
TRUE FOR ABASCAL
In the Vox program for 23J he mentions the strikes on two occasions in relation to prohibiting pickets, but not to prohibiting strikes in general. It is in the 2019 program to the generals of 28-A in which Vox did propose a modification of the right to strike.
In the Vox program for the 23-J elections, the strikes are mentioned at two points, according to the document they publish on their website. In point 31 it is said that “the right to work will be effectively guaranteed by prohibiting coercive actions in political strikes”, such as pickets.
Point 44 also proposes a law “for the protection of the constitutional rights of workers” and a reform of the Penal Code that punishes “strike pickets.”
In the program for the April 2019 general elections, however, the need for a “modern strike law” was mentioned and it was stated that “the legality of calling a strike will require the majority and secret vote of the workers of the sector, industry or company in which the collective conflict is intended to be initiated.”
This requirement of the majority vote of the workers of the sector, industry or company would be a limitation with respect to the current right to strike since, according to article 3 of Royal Decree-Law 17/1977 on labor relations that includes it, the declaration of a strike can be agreed by agreement of the majority of the representatives of the workers (not of the entire workforce).
It can also be called by decision of the workers affected by the conflict, by majority through a secret ballot, and by agreement adopted by the union organizations with implantation in the workplace to which the strike spreads, according to the website of the Ministry of Labor.
RIFIRRAFE ON THE HOURS WORKED: While Abascal says that “people work fewer hours and have lower wages.” Díaz says that the Spaniards worked “660 million hours” in the first quarter of 2023, “20% more”
CONTEXT
Santiago Abascal has stated that people work far fewer hours and have lower wages. The average number of hours per worker has decreased by 2.9%. In the first quarter of 2019, each worker worked 34.6 hours per week and in the first quarter of 2023, 33.6 hours, according to EPA data.
Still, the median salary has also increased between 2019 and 2021 (latest available data). In 2019 the average earnings per worker was 24,395.98 euros and in 2021 it was 25,896.82. The median salary and the most frequent salary also increased between 2019 and 2020, according to the latest available data from the INE’s annual salary structure survey.
Therefore, despite the fact that the average hours worked by each worker have decreased -not those of all workers- wages do not reflect this drop.
According to data from the EPA, in the first quarter of 2023 the total number of employed Spanish workers added up to 660 million weekly hours worked, as defended by Yolanda Díaz. This is 3.46% more than in the same period of 2019, when the coalition government began. In that first quarter of 2019 there were 638 million hours worked in total.
Díaz assures that it is about 20% more without specifying when. The most similar figure to which Díaz refers occurs between the first quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2020, with an increase of 21%. If we compare with the figure for the quarter in which the labor reform was approved (first quarter of 2022), total weekly hours worked increased by 2.1%.
DÍAZ: “Mr. Abascal and Mr. Feijóo, who represent the same thing here, want a cleaner, for example, to work until she is 70 years old”
CONTEXT
We do not classify this statement as false since the verb “want” cannot be verified, as it is an intention not based on data.
The truth is that neither Santiago Abascal’s party, Vox, nor the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, contain in their electoral programs that workers with some physical burden, such as a cleaner, must remain employed until they are 70 years old; nor any other type of worker. There are also no public statements in which these candidates have mentioned these proposals.
The only reference to the retirement age that the PP makes in its electoral program is in relation to specialists in family medicine and pediatrics in Primary Care; who propose extending it to 72 years. Vox, for its part, does not propose any retirement age for any sector.
ABASCAL: “You have hidden from us that inflation under your mandate has increased by an accumulated 16% and 31% in food and 22% in footwear”
THE FIRST TWO DATA ARE TRUE AND THE THIRD IS FALSE
Of the three figures that Santiago Abascal has given, two are true and one is not. According to the National Institute of Statistics, general inflation between June 2018, when Pedro Sánchez became president after the motion of no confidence, and June 2023 has increased by 15.47%. Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages has increased by 30.10% in the same period, according to the INE. However, the INE points out that the footwear price index has increased by 9.21%. not 22% as Santiago Abascal says.
DÍAZ: “In Spain there are privileges: fiscal policy is not fair, a small self-employed person, a hairdresser pays 13.5%; a large company at 3.8%” [min 11:47]
NEEDS CONTEXT.
Large companies, for tax purposes, are those that have a turnover of 6,010,121.04 euros or that have more than 250 workers. The effective rate on profit paid by large companies is 6.53%, according to data from the Tax Agency. Greater than the figure indicated by Yolanda Díaz. Within large companies, depending on the volume of workers, they pay a different effective rate. Díaz’s statement could refer to companies with more than 5,000 workers, whose effective rate is 3.59%.
The figure for the small self-employed can be misleading, since the self-employed pay income tax, which is progressive and varies depending on how much they earn. The more income, the effective percentage is higher. The average effective rate paid in 2022 among all taxpayers, which includes the self-employed, pensioners, and salaried employees, among others, was 15.3%.
ABASCAL: “You have not been able to reduce, with this law on gender violence, the murders of women”
FALSE
Santiago Abascal has repeated twice that the “law has not been able to reduce the number of murders.” It’s false.
The number of murders due to gender violence has decreased compared to 2019 and also since the Law against Gender Violence was approved in 2004.
In 2019 there were 56 murders and 2022 ended with 49 fatalities at the hands of their partner or ex-partner, according to figures published by the Ministry of Equality. This 2023, until July 10, there have been 28 murders (in the same period of 2019, 33 were murdered and in 2018, 22).
However, the reduction is greater if we compare with the data prior to the approval of the law in 2004: in 2003 there were 71 women murdered.
SÁNCHEZ: “The only party in Spain that has excluded itself from the State pact against gender violence has been Vox”
NEEDS CONTEXT.
Sánchez’s statement is true if he refers to the current State Pact, which Vox has not signed, but there have been more State Pacts against gender violence in Spain:
The 2018 State Pact against Gender Violence, which was approved in 2017 under the Rajoy government, was not signed by Podemos or by EH Bildu. The purple formation decided to abstain and not support the document as there is neither a calendar nor budgets that can guarantee its execution.
Subsequently, with Sánchez already in government, said pact was renewed, coinciding with November 25, 2021 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), and in this case all the political groups signed the opinion with the exception of Vox. You can read more information about the current State Pact against Gender Violence here.
ABASCAL: “If a man perceives himself to be female and hits his wife, that woman is not protected by law”
NEEDS CONTEXT.
Santiago Abascal has made these statements in relation to the trans law approved by the Government and assuring that if a man changes his gender he could get rid of being brought to justice by the gender violence law.
This “self-perception” to which Santiago Abascal refers would influence the protection of a woman in a case of gender violence in the event that a registered sex change occurred before the attack, since the law on gender violence would not be applied.
However, if the “self-perception” that Santiago Abascal refers to does not translate into a change of sex in the registry, that is, that the aggressor continues to appear as a man in the registry, it could not influence the protection of a woman in a case of gender violence.
Nor will it influence the case that the change of registered sex occurs after that aggression. This is indicated in article 46 of this law: “The rectification of the registry mention related to sex and, where appropriate, the change of name, will not alter the legal regime that, prior to the registration of the registry change, was applicable to the person for the purposes of Organic Law 1/2004, of December 28, on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence.”
RIFIRRAFE FOR THE MURDER OF A WOMAN IN TIRSO DE MOLINA (MADRID) AND THE NATIONALITY OF THE DETAINEE
NEEDS CONTEXT.
Yolanda Díaz demands that Santiago Abascal apologize for accusing an immigrant of the murder of a woman in Tirso de Molina and says that the detainee “was from San Lorenzo del Escorial.” Yolanda Díaz refers to a tweet published by Santiago Abascal on July 3 in which he retweeted false content that said “a Maghrebi stabbed to death a 61-year-old woman inside her store in the center of Madrid” along with the message “only VOX remembers that there are Spaniards who are suffering the immigration nonsense endorsed by all parties.”
After Díaz’s accusation, Santiago Abascal says: “I stand by what I said beyond echoing news that was not true.”
On July 3, a woman was murdered in her clothing store located in Plaza de Tirso de Molina, in the center of Madrid, as some media have published. On July 4, the alleged perpetrator of the events was arrested by the Police, together with a woman who would also be involved in the event. However, the two people arrested for the murder have Spanish nationality and were born in Spain, as indicated by the National Police to Maldita.es. Their names are Jesus and Estrella.
ABASCAL: “Those who pay the price for these green policies are (…) the most disadvantaged Spaniards, who can no longer enter the center of cities because they cannot buy an electric car in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants”
FALSE
Abascal refers to the obligation, introduced by the climate change law, that all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (and those with more than 20,000 with air quality problems) must have a low emission zone (ZBE). However, currently not all the obligated municipalities have implemented a LEZ, nor do those that have active zones allow only electric cars to pass through.
According to the criteria of inhabitants of the law, at least 149 cities enter into the obligation to establish these zones. However, according to the portal zonasdebajasemisiones.es, updated as of June 28, 2023, there are only 10 cities with active low emission zones in Spain. Some of the most populated cities in Spain, such as Bilbao or Valencia, are still in the project phase.
On the other hand, the traffic restrictions within the low emission zones are established, by obligation of the climate law and the vehicle regulations, according to the environmental labels of the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT). The current low emission zones only prevent the passage of vehicles without a label (or with an A label) and with exceptions, such as the low emission zone of Barcelona or the central district of Madrid. This last LEZ does restrict the access of vehicles B and C when there are high levels of contamination.
But, even if they only allowed access to LEZs to those vehicles with the label considered to be the most sustainable, label 0, this also includes a type of hybrid vehicle. Therefore, it is false that drivers without an electric car cannot enter the center of many Spanish cities.
DÍAZ: “We are experiencing an unprecedented heat wave (…) This heat wave is not a coincidence, it is called climate change”
CONTEXT
The current heat wave affecting Spain has been significant in that it has set some temperature records in various parts of the country, such as 45.4 °C in Figueres or 44.3 °C in Porqueres, both in Catalonia. However, it is not being the longest, nor the most extensive, nor the most intense on record, three parameters with which the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) classifies heat waves in Spain. The most extreme so far, according to Aemet, occurred in July 2022: it affected 44 provinces and lasted 18 days. This, on the contrary, began last Monday, July 17, and which, according to the latest Aemet forecasts, would end on Wednesday, July 19.
“This month of July is being characterized by short but very intense heat episodes, in which temperatures are clearly above 40ºC. After these warm episodes come periods with more normal heat […] With the analysis of the first 17 days of July 2023, this month ranks as the third warmest July in the historical series, a series that began in 1961”, according to the spokesman for the meteorological agency, Rubén del Campo, through a voice note provided by the institution.
Another thing is the simultaneous heat waves that a good part of Europe is going through, due to the presence of an anticyclone that has been unofficially named by certain Italian websites such as Caronte or Cerberus. Historical temperature records are being broken in countries such as Italy, where 46.3 °C has been reached in Licata (Sicily), or in the United Kingdom, a country in which the 40 °C mark has been exceeded, something never before observed according to MetOffice, the British meteorological service.
These are figures that have been registered after what is now considered the week with the highest global temperatures since there are records, both according to the data offered by the Copernicus program, of the European Commission (EC), and those announced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP, in English) of the United States.
ABASCAL: “The climate law (…) is precisely the law that prevents the exploration and exploitation of our own natural and energy resources when we suffer from energy dependence”
NEEDS CONTEXT
The climate change law that entered into force on May 22, 2021 prohibits the approval of “new” authorizations for exploration, research and exploitation of hydrocarbons and radioactive mineral deposits, but this prohibition does not affect other types of resources such as sun, wind or water.
ABASCAL: “Mr. Pedro Sánchez has destroyed part of Spain’s wealth (…) and blown up dams in the middle of a drought. ” [min 10]
NEEDS CONTEXT.
The destruction of dams in Spain is a narrative that we have already verified before. What has been removed from numerous rivers in Spain in the vast majority of cases are not dams (high walls that close off a reservoir) but dams (usually small walls that divert part of the flow of a river for irrigation and other uses and that usually allow water to flow over them). Although the number of barriers removed has increased in recent years, this river restoration policy has been applied since at least the year 2000.
In addition, all the demolished fluvial structures were either in disuse, that is, they were not used at all, or they did not have a concession (permit) to use the water, according to all the experts consulted by Maldita.es. Demolishing structures without a concession is an obligation established in the Public Administration Assets Law and the Hydraulic Public Domain Regulations.
If hundreds of dams had been demolished in recent years (at least 2021 and 2022), the total capacity of the reservoirs would have decreased, but the reality is that it has increased from 55,326 hm3 in 2013 to 56,069 hm3 in 2023, according to the Peninsular Hydrological Bulletin produced weekly by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO). Since 2010 there are at least 20 new reservoirs, according to a data analysis carried out by Maldita.es.
This article is part of the content disseminated by Comprobado.es, an alliance of verifiers and media to fight against misinformation about the general elections on July 23.
