The Pro-Independence Carom: No Budgets in Spain, Catalonia, and Barcelona for 2025

After many differences, PSOE and Junts have agreed on one thing, and that is that there will be no General State Budgets (PGE) in 2025. Pedro Sánchez follows the same path as his counterparts in Catalonia and Barcelona. The three most important institutions for Catalans will have to extend their accounts while the world wobbles.

It is not a trivial matter. Extending the accounts forces governments to mortgage the investments planned for this year. This places Spain, Catalonia, and Barcelona in a position of extreme weakness at a time of great challenges.

If in Madrid it was Junts who torpedoed the budgets, in Catalonia the failure bears the signature of ERC. In both cases, the responsibility also falls on PSOE and PSC, and their determination to bind themselves to the processism. The same in Barcelona, where Jaume Collboni has been unable to find stability in a year and a half.

Jaume Collboni, the First Victim

Processism is not specific acronyms, but a way of functioning that has led Catalonia to institutional paralysis in the last ten years. The post-process, led by PSOE in Madrid and PSC in Catalonia, is more of the same. The socialists have mortgaged their government to the whims of the declining processist parties.

Jaume Collboni was the first to stand up to the demands of the Comuns, who wanted to continue governing in Barcelona from the opposition.

They used the budget negotiation to set red lines for Collboni, fearing that he would dismantle Ada Colau's Barcelona. Despite having ERC's approval, the intransigence of the Comuns forced the mayor to extend the 2025 accounts.

It is the same as what happened a year ago when the intransigence of the Comuns left Pere Aragonès without budgets, forcing him to call elections.

This way of doing politics is becoming a norm in Catalonia. Without sufficient majorities, governments are left in the hands of minorities that impose blackmail as negotiation.

Salvador Illa, Tied

The arrival of Salvador Illa to the Generalitat unleashed euphoria among the socialist ranks, but they have quickly faced reality. The budget negotiation coincided with the reelection of Oriol Junqueras as president of ERC. In their need to stand firm against Junts, the republicans said that without singular financing there would be no budgets.

Salvador Illa preferred to give up the budgets rather than seek other allies. Now he continues negotiating with ERC and Comuns for a credit supplement to have at least a little leeway with the accounts.

Which doesn't hide his failure, as he will not be able to make many of the planned investments to relaunch Catalonia in 2025.

Although the worst is not that, but the feeling that the Govern is tied by its partners, who add up to 26 deputies out of 135. In Catalonia, the Comuns seem more reliable partners in Barcelona, just the opposite of what happens with ERC. If in Barcelona they have shown themselves as a solid ally, in Catalonia their fluctuations are constant.

Pedro Sánchez, the Culmination

The Government of Spain will follow the same path as the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council.

The relationship with its partners is so weakened that Pedro Sánchez has given up even presenting the accounts. In the background is the constant destabilization by Junts, insatiable despite the many concessions received so far.

Pedro Sánchez believed he could govern with relative stability with the support of ERC and Junts, but it has been shown that it was naive. The processist parties have been paralyzing institutions in Catalonia for a decade, and the Congress of Deputies was not going to be any different. Giving the key to governance to Junts was something that could only go wrong.

The most optimistic socialists believe that when the amnesty issue is solved, everything will improve. But at best, it will only be the prelude to more demands and more blockades by the processist parties.

The contradiction is that without budgets in Spain, Catalonia, and Madrid, PSOE and PSC will be even more enslaved by processism.