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.