Feijóo urges Basque business to back change, calls absenteeism a 'cancer' and pressures PNV to abandon Sánchez
Alberto Núñez Feijóo met with Basque business leaders in Bilbao, calling workplace absenteeism a 'cancer' costing €30 billion a year and urging the PNV to withdraw support from Pedro Sánchez's government.
Political outreach in Bilbao
Alberto Núñez Feijóo visited Bilbao on Tuesday for a closed-door meeting with the Círculo de Empresarios Vascos, the elite Basque business association. The event, absent from his official agenda, mirrored a similar overture to Catalan business leaders in Barcelona a month earlier. Feijóo used the forum to present a liberal economic programme and to signal that the current legislature is nearing its end, telling executives that "if the legislature reaches July 2027, it will be four lost years".
Absenteeism as a 'cancer'
The PP leader devoted a significant portion of his speech to workplace absenteeism, which he described as "a cancer we cannot afford". He argued that workers on sick leave should not receive the same pay as when they are working, and that collective agreements should stop topping up salaries during temporary incapacity.
Feijóo pledged to act "with or without agreement" from unions and employers if he reaches government.If company agreements stipulate that a person who does not go to work earns the same as when they do go to work, well, what can I say.
Pressure on the PNV
Feijóo's message was aimed squarely at the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), whose parliamentary support keeps Sánchez in power. He insisted that no ideological difference justifies prolonging the current political cycle.
The PP believes a segment of the PNV's moderate electorate is increasingly uncomfortable with the party's alliance with the Socialist-led government, and Feijóo sought to exploit that rift.There is no ideological difference that justifies stretching this political cycle. Decency is above ideology.
Autonomy pledge and swipe at Vox
In a nod to Basque sensibilities, Feijóo promised to respect the region's self-government and the Statute of Guernica, distancing himself from Vox's centralist agenda. Without naming Santiago Abascal, he said those who claim to love Spain but refuse to defend the State of Autonomies "do not love it much".
Those who say they love Spain a lot but are not willing to defend the State of Autonomies, nor the statutes of the autonomous communities, nor the foral rights of this community together with Navarre, do not love it much.
The cost of absenteeism
Feijóo cited official figures showing that daily absenteeism has surged from 450,000 workers in 2018 to 1.16 million in 2025, costing over €30 billion annually. He linked this to a Social Security deficit of €70 billion and recalled his experience reducing absenteeism at Correos from 8% to 4%. The CEOE president, Antonio Garamendi, has also called for regulatory changes, warning that a national collective bargaining agreement may not be reached without them.
- 2018
- 450000 people
- 2025
- 1160000 people
