The Government approves the first budgets of the legislature with tied support from ERC and Comuns

BarcelonaAfter swallowing the bitter pill of withdrawing the first budgets he presented as President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa is now, truly, beginning the path for Parliament to give the green light to the first accounts of the legislature. With the support of ERC and Comuns secured, Illa is ensuring one of his main objectives for the legislature. The accounts for this 2026 will be the Government's first and, perhaps, only ones, because 2027 is an election year, with municipal and general elections in sight, and 2028 is already his last year of the legislature, two scenarios not conducive to negotiating accounts. Therefore, having achieved these budgets, Illa is ensuring, for now, the continuity of the legislature.

This Friday the February ritual has been repeated: the executive council approved the bill first thing in the morning and, subsequently, the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, handed the document to the Catalan chamber so that it could begin processing it. They reach almost 50,000 million euros, specifically 49,162 million, and this represents an increase of 22.8% compared to the 2023 budget —around 9,126 million euros—. Compared to the Generalitat's spending last year, under a budget extension, the increase is 10.3%.

They are the same figures that the Government approved in February. However, the executive has reserved 4,693 million euros to comply with the commitments signed with the two investiture partners between 2026 and 2030. Of this money, 893 million will be spent this year. Where does it come from? The Government had reserved a pot of 360 million in February for possible agreements it could reach with ERC, money that was already accounted for within the 49,162 million. The rest would come from the 500 million that the Government expects to obtain this year thanks to the improvement in revenue forecasts.

There is, on the other hand, no budget set aside for a potential agreement with teachers, who are maintaining their strikes in parallel with negotiations with the Department of Education. If an agreement is eventually reached, the executive plans to make changes to the current budget items to incorporate the demands that are accepted from teachers. "The budget is alive, it has room for manoeuvre. We can modify budget items for contingencies that may arise [...]. If this agreement comes about, we will seek the resources through the necessary modifications," Romero stated.

The budget maintains the same budgeted allocations —4,146 million are foreseen for investments—, for each area and department. Thus, the 1,900 million foreseen for housing that the Government agreed with the Comuns in February are maintained. For this 2026, the Government has foreseen 200 million to begin executing the commitments agreed with ERC and the Comuns in the territorial and housing areas, but it has not specified what part of these 200 million goes to housing. Jéssica Albiach's party has agreed that the Generalitat will reach up to 1,500 — in February it was 1,250— in its own resources and up to 1,000 million financed by the Institut Català de Finances (ICF). ERC has also agreed to a housing rehabilitation plan endowed with 160 million euros annually.

Final approval, on July 2

"The country needs budgets, and thanks to the socialist, Esquerra, and Comuns groups, today we can present a bill that has the essential support for us to approve them," Romero defended. Starting this Friday, the parliamentary processing begins. The board will admit the bill for processing in a meeting this midday and the debate on the accounts in their entirety is scheduled for June 4, as explained by the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull.

have agreed to reach 2.5 billion eurosThe negotiation with ERC

The socialist executive wanted to let the Andalusian elections pass to set in motion all the machinery to approve the budgets before the end of July, as agreed with ERC. The negotiations between socialists and republicans derailed in March, when the red line ERC had set to start negotiating the accounts, the transfer of IRPF collection, clashed with the State's refusal to open this file, which, on the other hand, it had endorsed for Salvador Illa's investiture. The Government ended up withdrawing the accounts – it presented them without ERC's support tied – and Oriol Junqueras' party stopped setting IRPF as a sine qua non condition for negotiating.

The two parties did a

reset and opened two months of negotiations that have culminated in the presentation of an agreement this week. The orbital railway line has ended up being the breakthrough for the accounts, a request that Esquerra put on the table, along with the investment company, which must oversee the money that the State allocates to Catalonia, and also that Catalonia gain majority in the governance of the Consorci de la Zona Franca.

In February, the Government had already reached an agreement with the commons, but Jéssica Albiach's party wanted to update its pact. This past week it has been negotiating with the executive, among other measures, to increase the money allocated to housing and, finally,

they have agreed to reach 2,500 million euros. Jéssica Albiach's party also agreed with the Government to study changes in the R-Aeroport and for it to become a commuter line.

Opposition criticism

The agreement on the budgets is not shared by the opposition groups. Junts has criticized that the Government has wasted "three precious months" to present budgets that are "exactly the same". A thesis that has been refuted by the deputy spokesperson for ERC, Jordi Albert, who claimed that the accounts incorporate “future agreements”. Despite the criticism, Vergés has not wanted to clarify whether they will present a total amendment or take the budgets to the Council of Statutory Guarantees. The CUP will decide next week, but the deputy Laure Vega has lamented that the accounts are an "opportunity lost", because she considers them not ambitious enough on issues such as housing and also in national terms.

Those who have announced that they will present it are the PP and Vox. "The Government presents as a budgetary agreement what is actually an authentic political scam", affirmed the popular spokesperson, Juan Fernández. The spokesperson for Vox, Joan Garriga, sees "ideological delusions" in the budgets.