The Catalan government will request a total of €8.538 billion from the Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA) next year, a similar amount to that requested in 2025 (€8.488 billion, of which it received €8.113 billion). This decision means moving away from resorting to the markets for financing again, as it had planned to do starting next year. to obtain around 5% of the total debtIn fact, the date has been repeatedly postponed, although the finances, still complicatedThey have been improving and the Catalan government has achieved for the first time in 13 years Financing from banks totaling 3.5 billionto lower the cost of the 2023 FLA (Regional Liquidity Fund). Agencies such as Fitch, Moody's, and DBRS have also removed the junk bond label from Catalan debt and given it a rating that considers it more reliable.

Catalonia will be one of the autonomous communities most benefited by the Spanish government's debt forgiveness – it will see some 17 billion eurosHowever, their headaches won't be entirely resolved, or at least that's what the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) predicts. AIReF has just calculated the implications of this debt forgiveness, should it be finally approved, for the financial health of each region. It's worth remembering that €83.252 billion is slated for forgiveness, representing 24.3% of the current regional debt (€342.804 billion). To begin with, the regional debt forgiveness will allow the regions to meet the legal limit, stipulated at 13% of GDP in 2029, as AIReF indicated this Wednesday. This means complying with this rule of the budget stability law twelve years ahead of schedule. Without the debt forgiveness, the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) estimated that the combined debt of the autonomous communities would reach the 13% of GDP limit in 2041. The total debt of the autonomous communities in the second quarter of 2025 (the latest period for which data is available) was 20.9% of GDP. With the debt forgiveness, it would fall to 15.9%. AIReF also explained that part of this debt reduction is due to the impact of eliminating interest payments. Specifically, the potential savings in interest for the regional governments would exceed €2.5 billion in the first year of the measure's implementation. By 2030, the accumulated savings would reach €15.6 billion, according to the agency's estimate. This figure is higher than that of the Ministry of Finance, which put the savings at just over €7 billion.

The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the draft bill to forgive part of the debt that the autonomous communities have accumulated with the regional liquidity fund (FLA), the mechanism created in the wake of the financial crisis due to the inability of the autonomous communities to access the markets. Catalonia will see approximately €17 billion lost. The Spanish government formalizes the pact it reached with ERC for Pedro Sánchez's investiture in 2023, although the First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, emphasized that it is a measure that benefits all regions. "It is a false dilemma to suggest that when an agreement is reached that is good for one part of the territory, it is an insult to the whole. The PP does this when it comes to negotiations with Catalan parties," she criticized at a press conference at Moncloa Palace.

Pedro Sánchez wants to win back Esquerra to try to push through at least a budget in this legislature and will launch the political course by approving the debt forgiveness of the Generalitat with the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) that they agreed upon for the investiture, as he has advanced. Digital NationIn February, the first vice president of the Spanish government, María Jesús Montero, announced that they would be 17.104 billion euros for Catalonia, which corresponds to 20% of the total debt that the Catalan government owes to the Spanish government. For all the autonomous communities, it amounts to €83.2 billion. The calculation of how much each one would owe was made using a series of criteria also agreed upon with the Republicans, which outraged the autonomous communities governed by the People's Party (PP), which until now have opposed this measure. They exemplified this at a meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Committee (CPFF) with a snub in Montero, although it remains to be seen, once the mechanism is definitively approved in Congress—an absolute majority is required—whether they choose to avail themselves of the financial oxygen provided by the state executive.

The Ministry of Finance launched this Wednesday, for public consultation, the proposal for the State to assume up to €83.252 billion of the debt of all the autonomous communities. Andalusia and Catalonia would be the most benefited regions, with more than 43% of the total regional deficit forgiveness. This Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance published a consultation on the preliminary draft of the organic law on exceptional financial sustainability measures for the autonomous communities under the common regime.

While they didn't even stay an hour at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) meeting that was supposed to address debt forgiveness, some PP-led autonomous communities didn't even last five minutes at the technical meetings on this issue. Following the joint standoff a month and a half ago, the Ministry of Finance is calling the autonomous communities to bilateral technical meetings to address the issue.Where does the initiative for a pact between the PSOE and ERC come from?– was the first to be called, followed by Andalusia, the autonomous region for which the Spanish government is proposing to forgive the largest amount. However, the executive officials of the Popular Party leader Juanma Moreno spent only a few minutes meeting with those from the Ministry of Finance. The representatives of Andalusia immediately cut short the virtual meeting held at the end of March, saying – "very politely" – that they were not willing to address this issue because what they want is to talk about is reforming the regional financing system, sources from the Andalusian Ministry of Finance explained to ARA.

The PP Finance Ministers have put on a lamentable show this Wednesday at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council: they have stood up from their chairs and have refused to participate in the debate and vote on an initiative, the partial forgiveness of debt, which benefits all the autonomous communities. The reason is not the measure itself, but rather that it is a proposal included in the investiture pact of Pedro Sánchez signed between ERC and PSOE. The message they launched after leaving the room was that they do not want to pick up "the springs of Sánchez's pact with the independentists", thus returning to the old anti-Catalan rhetoric of the PP. On this point it is necessary to make some considerations.

The Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) will debate this Wednesday the proposal of Pedro Sánchez's government to forgive part of the communities' debt. The communities governed by the PP, with Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of Madrid, at the head, have come out in force saying that it is a pact between the Spanish government and the Catalan independentists to benefit Catalonia. But is Catalonia the community that benefits the most? Several aspects indicate that this is not the case. In fact, overall the communities governed by the PP are the ones that benefit.