{"id":352848,"date":"2025-08-18T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352848\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T00:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:00:33","slug":"spain-forced-to-run-on-2023-budget-as-sanchez-heads-for-the-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352848\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain forced to run on 2023 budget as S\u00e1nchez heads for the beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nMADRID \u2013 Spain enters the summer recess without a 2026 budget and, for the third year in a row, no clear path to one as domestic troubles for Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez continue to pile up.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nBefore packing his bag for his retreat in the Canary Islands, S\u00e1nchez promised that his government would submit the 2026 budget proposal.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut Finance Minister Mar\u00eda Jes\u00fas Montero walked back expectations last week,\u00a0<\/strong>saying<\/a> a draft would only be tabled if there was \u201cprior political consensus,” which no one in Madrid is currently betting on.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat means Spain is on course to miss its budget deadline for the third year in a row, this time because Catalan pro-independence parties and the far-left Podemos are threatening<\/a> to block the plan before it even reaches parliament. The ordinary budget process normally begins in mid-June.\n<\/p>\n

The ‘new’ normal
\nSpain has never missed two consecutive budget presentations since the restoration of democracy in 1975. Now, S\u00e1nchez will go down in history for missing it three times.<\/p>\n

\nFaced with another year of deadlock, S\u00e1nchez has leaned heavily on the 2023 spending plan \u2013 the largest in history<\/a> \u2013 rolling it over again and again to keep the state running.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn 2024, he bypassed the budget process<\/a>, citing the Catalan regional elections, while in 2025, his government took<\/a> a more forthright approach, arguing it would not even \u201cwaste time\u201d on a doomed budget.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor now, S\u00e1nchez insists that Spain can function under the 2023 budget due to its generous scope. But Jos\u00e9 E. Bosc\u00e1, economics professor and researcher at Fedea, a Spanish economic think tank, called the situation \u201chighly unusual\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\nWithout updated fiscal projections, he said, the state must resort to \u201cextraordinary mechanisms\u201d, which lead to inefficiencies, policy delays, and underfunding of regions and municipalities.\n<\/p>\n

\nCentre-right opposition Popular Party has also accused the government of mismanagement and repeatedly demanded<\/a> that S\u00e1nchez call elections to overcome Madrid’s parliamentary deadlock.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHow can a country function with a budget that is three years out of date?\u201d asked a PP party spokesperson. \u201cRegional governments don\u2019t even know how much money they\u2019ll receive.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

A high-cost budget
\nThe delay reflects deeper political fractures<\/a>. S\u00e1nchez\u2019s minority government depends on Catalan pro-independence parties and far-left Podemos, whose support remains more than uncertain.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere will be no budgets in Catalonia and Spain until the government fulfils its commitments regarding tax collection, personal income tax, and the financing model,” \u00a0left-wing ERC president Oriol Junqueras warned<\/a> the press last month.\n<\/p>\n

\nRight-wing separatist party Junts, meanwhile, is calling<\/a> for payment of a supposed \u20ac50 billion debt to the region, full implementation of the controversial amnesty law, and Catalan\u2019s inclusion in the EU\u2019s list of official languages.\n<\/p>\n

\nNeither party responded to Euractiv\u2019s request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, Podemos has repeatedly warned<\/a> S\u00e1nchez that increasing defence spending in the 2026 budget is a red line the party is not willing to cross.\n<\/p>\n

\nIronically, S\u00e1nchez, as opposition leader, once\u00a0demanded the resignation<\/a> of then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for failing to present a budget.\u00a0\u201cWithout a budget, you can\u2019t govern,\u201d he said then.\n<\/p>\n

\nWith the opposition now calling for his head for failing to present a budget for the third consecutive year,\u00a0 S\u00e1nchez has come full circle.\n<\/p>\n

\n(cs, mm)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID \u2013 Spain enters the summer recess without a 2026 budget and, for the third year in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-352848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115046830836951307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}