This week, the municipal budgets for Lleida for the 2026 fiscal year were automatically given initial approval. Lacking any support, the governing party of the Paeria (PSC), in a clear minority (9 of the 27 councilors), resorted to a legal avenue provided by the local government law to pass it. And they did so by risking their leader, at least in theory. The opposition parties had a full month to agree on a candidate to lead a motion of no confidence, an option permitted by the law itself. But they didn't even try. The arithmetic is what it is (a three-way tie with five councilors each for the PP, ERC, and Junts), and that left no room for negotiation. Mayor Fèlix Larrosa has managed to pass a budget for now without consensus, but with the uncertainty of what the city's politics will bring in the next fifteen months before the next municipal elections.

"In theory, it's an obligation for city councils, but, as we've seen in Badalona, ​​some choose not to." Political scientist Alba Lanau, professor and researcher at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), laments that in practice, local administrations can get away with failing to fulfill their obligations to assist the homeless. The law establishes the minimum standards that the administration must guarantee, but there are hardly any precedents of non-compliance that have reached the courts. Added to this is the difficulty for people in extremely vulnerable situations to want to—and be able to—initiate legal proceedings, and voices from specialized social organizations admit that the lack of resources has also ultimately weighed heavily in dismissing legal action whenever it has been considered.

Catalan municipalities have issued a plea for help, urging the Generalitat (Catalan government) not to abandon them in assisting people experiencing homelessness. While there is no official census quantifying homelessness, it is clearly a widespread phenomenon. It already surpasses the metropolitan area and extends to small towns throughout the country. Local councils agree that, currently, the problem lacks sufficient financial resources.

Scattered and poorly sorted brush, papers and bottles left in the streets, shouting and music at night, dog droppings in parks and sidewalks, and even barbecues in public spaces and viral challenges to defecate in municipal swimming pools. These are some of the most frequent acts of behavior classified as uncivil by municipal ordinances and which carry fines that can exceed hundreds of euros.

During this Spanish legislature, there have been several transfers of powers in Catalonia, but there is one agreed upon this year that could also have a significant impact: the responsibility for the comprehensive management of municipal secretaries and auditors. On the one hand, this was agreed upon by Junts and the PSOE last Friday in May with a compromise amendment, through a new additional provision to the law of local government foundations in the processing of the state civil service law. However, the Generalitat had already secured the commitment to transfer in the February Generalitat-State Bilateral Commission, although it must be finalized throughout the year.

We all complain about administrative bureaucracy and tend to place the blame on the perennial civil servant or the clumsy politician. And we feel quite relieved. But, if we're honest, we also know good public servants who do quiet, inconspicuous work, without whom things would be even worse. The administration closest to us, the municipal one, tends to be the one taking the fall. In Catalonia, moreover, there is a municipal administrative mini-fundism, with 947 municipalities. That's a lot. Surely too much. For the purposes of efficiency and economy of scale, some should be grouped together. An attempt was made 25 years ago with the so-called Roca Report, but the political parties didn't dare, and the bellwether politics have persisted, with the resulting dysfunctions and an endemic lack of resources and professionals. It's very difficult to keep all the wheels of an administration running smoothly, and when it's very small, it can't do everything.

The PSC, Comuns, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, and the CUP signed an agreement this Wednesday in which they commit to guaranteeing universal registration in compliance with the law. Pact for the Register in Catalonia It is an initiative promoted by more than a hundred social entities, from Cáritas, ECAS, LaFede to Confavc and aFFaC, which requires the registration of all residents without asking about their administrative status, whether they have a rental contract or not or if they live in substandard housing. On the other hand, the PP, Vox, Aliança Catalunya and also TogetherThe council members have justified their refusal by stating that the agreement does not resolve "in-depth issues fundamental to the management of the registry that is consistent with the tools and resources the country currently has." It so happens that yes, it has been added to the MEScat Pact, a party born from a split from the PSC and integrated into Junts as an internal current.

The autonomous communities and local governments will have record resources to prepare their 2026 budgets. This Tuesday's Council of Ministers updated the advance payments for both administrations, as announced by First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, in an interview with RNE on Monday morning. Alegría, at a press conference this Tuesday.

One of the challenges facing local governments—and institutional politics in general—is reversing the historically negligible presence of women in political parties and administrations. Although the number of women on electoral lists and in council and mayoral positions has multiplied over the last decade, significant gaps still exist in the types of responsibilities men and women assume in city councils, and parity has not been achieved in the mayoral positions.

Rosa RR has been living in an apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Martorell for over three years, but the City Council is preventing her from registering because she has no property title or rental agreement. She has requested entry to the register up to six times and has not received a response in each case, although the law interprets this silence as positive after the required three months have passed. However, she is still not registered.

80.5% of Catalan town halls lack the Spanish flag on their facades, according to the pro-Spanish organization Impulso Ciudadano. Of the 947 Catalan municipalities, 763 do not display the state flag, and only 184 do (19.5%). This is evident from the report released this Monday by the organization, which is working to ensure compliance with the flag law. This percentage represents a two-point increase compared to 2022, when 170 (17.9%) displayed the Spanish flag.