Catalonia once again finds itself among the communities where the State allocates the least resources. According to reports sent by the Ministry of Finance this Friday to political parties and Congress, and to which ARA has had access, the central government spent 8.6% of the total investment it executed in 2025 in the autonomous communities in Catalonia.

A week after the Spanish government activated the mechanism to present State budgets for 2027, Congress has dealt a first blow to Pedro Sánchez's initiative. The PP, Vox, and Junts have rejected the stability route, one of the mandatory steps to bring the accounts to the Spanish chamber this autumn. However, despite this first parliamentary failure, the Spanish executive can still move forward with the process. And it will do so in the face of a defeat in Congress that at Moncloa they had already accepted and which will not alter their plans. "Some will try to present this vote as a victory or defeat for the government, but they are mistaken. The real question is whether the autonomous communities will have more resources," argued the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, during the debate in the lower house.

After announcing the deficit targets for the autonomous communities to the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy, this Tuesday the Council of Ministers ratified them and also approved the spending ceiling for all public administrations. The Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, announced that it will be the "largest in history": up to 226,032 million, 6.6% more than the previous spending ceiling, which was 212,026 million euros.

A 15-year-old boy died last night in the Sagrera neighborhood, in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona, when he was shot with a firearm in Parc de la Pegaso. According to councilor Parlon, the first indications point to a gang revenge.We have a serious problem, which we did not have, with firearms. In Barcelona this year there have already been seven people killed by bullets. One a month. Drug trafficking gangs use cities as their distribution centers, there is a lot of money circulating, a lot of weapons circulating (remember that we have a war in Europe, in Ukraine, specifically), and their crimes take place in any neighborhood, from Balmes/Travessera to Parc de la Pegaso. They are no longer settled in Barcelona, but rather they live in Barcelona, and they kill there, whether it is the day the Pope comes or the day the Tour de France is presented. And they buy other businesses and have the capacity, if the police and justice do not confront them, to turn us into a narco-society.This week I mentioned here that around 300,000 people would have requested papers in Catalonia (given the Spanish total), and they ended up being a bit less, 257,000 applications, out of a total of one million seven hundred thousand in all of Spain. And this, when at first the Spanish government was talking about half a million in total. More than half have already been admitted for processing. In Madrid, the applications ended up being 200,000, and in the Valencian Community 167,000. On these two pages there is a detail of the ages of the new citizens, from which countries they come from, and which sectors they will work in. We will not review now the challenge that integrating all these people means in every sense. Immigration allows the economy not to stop, but services are needed. Will they pay taxes, and, at the same time, how will we pay for all this? And this is where the budgets that the Parliament approved yesterday come in. It is good news, which arrives in July (!), and thank goodness, because now we were going with the extended budgets of 2023. In fact, having budgets should be an obligation, because as we have said here many times it is not their money, it is our money. However, Catalonia will always fall short, with or without budgets, as long as it cannot dispose of its fiscal effort. This is why a new and much better financing system is needed. And speaking of all this: are you aware of the complaint about the dismissal of a worker from the company Aticco for speaking Catalan. The company says it didn't happen exactly like that, that the decision "responds exclusively to professional reasons", but the worker denies it. In fact, two of the dismissal reasons they gave her had to do with the use of Catalan. The Minister of Linguistic Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, has ordered the Office for the Protection of Linguistic Rights to open an investigation and take appropriate measures.

The outbreak of war in Iran and the consequent increase in prices, particularly energy prices, led the government of Pedro Sánchez to approve a package of measures to alleviate the economic effects on companies and citizens. Four months after the start of the conflict, inflation has decreased, but not enough to withdraw all measures. Thus, the Spanish executive has decided to keep some of them active for three more months. That is, until September 30. Once approved in the Council of Ministers, they must be validated by Congress.

Economic optimism despite the war in Iran. The Spanish government updated the macroeconomic framework this Monday and forecasts that the economy will grow by 2.6% in 2026 (four tenths more than previously predicted) and by more than 2% in the next three years, i.e., until 2029, as detailed in a press conference by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, after a cabinet meeting where a new package of measures was precisely approved to mitigate the economic impact of the conflict, especially in energy matters.

While Pedro Sánchez stands up to the demand for early elections from the opposition and some of the investiture partners in Congress, the president of the employers' association CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, has emphasized the consequences of the Spanish government not having approved – in fact, not even presented – any budget law in the three years of legislature it has been in office. "In a company, if the director on duty does not present the budgets, he knows he is out on the street," he stated from Santander this Wednesday.

Salvador Illa's first budgets passed their initial parliamentary stage this Thursday. The debate on the entirety of the accounts once again highlighted the alliance that brought the socialist president to the Palau de la Generalitat and which the Government intends to serve it to reach the end of the legislature. Thus, the budgets have begun to be processed with the support of the two investiture partners, ERC and Comuns, with whom the Government reached an agreement two weeks ago. The executive, however, has not managed to secure the 'yes' of any of the opposition groups: Junts, the CUP, Aliança, the PP, and Vox had presented amendments in their entirety, four texts that have been rejected. The words of the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, asking them to come out of the "trench" and defending accounts that reach almost 50 billion euros and grow by 22% compared to those of 2023, have not served to convince them. And even more so when, during the debate, the news broke that teachers rejected the unions' agreement with Education. Junts and the CUP have taken the opportunity to attack the executive, while the partners have asked the Government to reopen negotiations.

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has surprised both allies and adversaries at the Cercle d'Economia by announcing that this very week the order for the elaboration of the 2027 budgets will be published in the BOE. Needless to say, in the midst of a judicial storm against the PSOE and with the legislature about to enter its final year, the possibility of these accounts moving forward is almost non-existent. If it wasn't possible in 2024 and 2025, when there was still half a term left, it's even less so now. What, then, is behind this plot twist from the Spanish President?

Now that the Illa government has managed to move forward with theirs, it is a good time to point out that, both in Catalonia and in Spain, the negotiation of the budgets has become a little theater of gestures, pretenses, and bad scripts of drama or comedy. It seeks to find twists that are exciting, because politics is reduced to a fair of emotions and politicians live waiting to find their moments –fleeting, ephemeral– of display. This applies as much to the parties in government and their partners as to those in opposition. Within this dynamic of fanfare, the coup de effect, and unbridled populism, budgets appear as a golden opportunity to gain prominence.In Catalonia, budgets were always approved during pujolism, and also with the two tripartite governments (with more problems: they were the years of the Dragon Khan, and the first effects of the crisis began to be noticed). From 2011 onwards, when Artur Mas stopped counting on the votes of Alícia Sánchez Camacho, budgets entered a period of uncertainty: these were the years of the Procés, and instability was in crescendo until the referendum of October 1st and the application of Article 155. From 2018 onwards, with the presidency of Quim Torra (then Aragonès, now Illa), and with governments of Junts, ERC and PSC, the difficulties in approving budgets were not due to truly exceptional situations – as the Procés was – but to simple calculations and staging by the different political parties. Or to politicking, if you prefer. Something different, yet at the same time similar, is seen in the Spanish case: González and Aznar were almost always able to approve budgets punctually, Zapatero with some problems, and with Rajoy an era of uncertainty began (his government had to manage the global financial crisis in Spain, and did so in such a grotesque and corrupt way that the Spanish government ended up with its accounts overseen by Brussels). With Sánchez, the uncertainty has been accentuated by having had to govern in minority and with the ultra-nationalist right in a state of total political warfare.All this does not mean that politicians from the past were more tepid, but rather that they saw the negotiation and approval of the budget law as what it is: the law that allows the normal functioning of the entire public system, a matter important enough not to put obstacles in its way unless for reasons, let's repeat, truly exceptional. Lately it has become an occasion for exhibitionism and overacting: those who vote in favor of the budgets want to assume that they have managed to wrest great advances from the government in power – even if they are railway lines fifteen years away – and those who oppose them denounce the budgets as an act of betrayal and vassalage (they would approve them in the same way, or a similar one). So much comedy is not only sterile: it is also a contempt for the understanding of citizens, and an abandonment of the public responsibility that one is supposed to want to exercise.

If there is one thing that defines the budget agreement between ERC and the PSC it is that its fulfillment will basically depend on the Spanish government. Specifically, on the PSOE continuing in La Moncloa. The orbital train line, which should be financed by the corresponding ministry; the investment consortium so that Catalonia has decision-making capacity; the change of statutes in the Zona Franca Consortium; the co-management of airports and, obviously, the transfer of IRPF or the approval of a new regional financing model.

The approval of a budget always has two dimensions. The first is that it allows administrations to function normally and have more resources to carry out specific policies. From this point of view, the approval of accounts is always good news, because it is a measure that positively impacts both public services and the economy in general due to the flow of resources, for example for infrastructure, that it entails. The second dimension is political. In the case of the accounts approved yesterday by the executive council and presented to Parliament, they represent the cornerstone that will allow Salvador Illa to complete his term.

After almost three months of budget negotiation, ERC and Comuns have managed to commit 893 million euros from the 2026 budget, 1.8% of the Generalitat's total spending of 49,162 million euros. Broadly speaking, however, the main figures of the accounts that the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, brought to Parliament this Friday are the same as in February: 49,162 million euros in budget spending, 4,146 million in investments, and 329.6 million in deficit (0.1% of GDP). Even the dossier presented as a summary of the project approved by the executive council this same Friday has been practically identical to the one from February. Where do these 893 million come from, then?

Images from this morning, when the Government met in extraordinary executive council to approve the budgetsMeanwhile, the teachers' strike continues, as we explain. The teachers' unions are not letting up. The negotiation between the Government and the union representatives will continue today: they remain stuck on improving salaries and, despite the wear and tear that maintaining the stoppages means, the unions are determined to continue them.

"Since they improved the [Rodalies] service, it takes 20 minutes less, and without having to go through Barcelona". This is one of the phrases heard in the presentation video of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030, the strategic plan for the metropolitan region of Barcelona approved three years ago, explaining what the metropolis should be like at the turn of the decade. A phrase that condenses a dream for many people: to be able to move between the main cities of the so-called metropolitan arc without Barcelona being mandatory on any journey.

The Government already has all the support to approve the budgets for 2026. After this week's agreement with ERC, validated this Wednesday by the Spanish government, the executive and Comuns have signed their definitive pact for the accounts this Thursday morning, which includes 2.5 billion for housing and rethinking the R-Aeroport, among others. Salvador Illa and Jéssica Albiach have sealed the understanding at the Palau de la Generalitat and this Friday the Government will approve the numbers in an executive council, with the aim that Parliament definitively validates them in the first fortnight of July.

After a four-hour debate, Jovent Republicà, the youth wing of ERC, has decided to endorse Salvador Illa's budgets. The vote of deputy Mar Besses, who represents the organization in Parliament, was essential for the accounts to go through. The national council met this afternoon to decide the direction of their vote and, after a long debate, opted to "preserve the unitary space with Esquerra Republicana" and "maintain the direction of the parliamentary group's vote out of responsibility". However, in a statement, the organization admits that the decision implies "assuming important contradictions" and asks ERC to carry out a "profound review" of the investiture agreement and its compliance.

Conversations had been on track for days, but the Government did not want to formalize an agreement until after the Andalusian elections. Well, it was just the next day when Esquerra officially gave its yes to Salvador Illa's first budget after explaining the pact first to the executive, and then to the national council. Salvador Illa and Oriol Junqueras will sign the agreement this Tuesday at the Palau de la Generalitat. The pact has not been put to a vote, but according to various sources consulted, and the party has "informed" the national councilors of the pact's content.It is in the national council meeting where the voices of the party's critics have been heard. With ERC's yes, the Government only has to finish negotiating with the Commons on the updating of its pact.

Esquerra had agreed on three issues to reach an agreement on Salvador Illa's budgets. On the one hand, the orbital railway line which, as explained by ARA last Monday, socialists and republicans have reached an agreement to materialize it in the next fifteen years. On the other hand, the commercial company that is to oversee state investments has also been agreed upon. And there was a third issue, a transfer that ERC had not yet revealed and that it is finishing closing with the socialists. Well, it concerns the Consorci de la Zona Franca: PSC and Esquerra are finalizing an agreement so that Catalonia will have the majority of the entity, which until now was entirely state-owned, according to what Agencia Efe has reported and ARA has confirmed.

Catalan employers' associations and trade unions will participate in the decision-making of the parity consortium for investments between the State and the Generalitat. The budget agreement ratified by the Govern and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya this Tuesday foresees the creation of an advisory council to "guide the functions" of the body, as well as the investment company that must be established to guarantee its execution. This was confirmed by the executive to the most representative economic organizations –CCOO, UGT, Pimec, and Foment del Treball– in the meeting they held, the four of them, with the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, and the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, this Tuesday. The representatives of workers and employers have welcomed the proposal, although they have assured that "the small print still needs to be read".