Barcelona mayor to submit to motion of confidence after failing to pass council budget

Barcelona city councilers have rejected the 2024 budget presented by Jaume Collboni's government, leading to the mayor to announce that he will submit to a motion of confidence.

Collboni's Socialist Party and pro-independence Esquerra Republicana reached a budget agreement but were the only parties supporting the spending plan, which was rejected by Trias x BCN, Barcelona En Comú, the People's Party, and Vox, with a final result of 15 yes votes to 26 no. 

Collboni has already announced that he will convene an extraordinary plenary session on March 27 to begin the motion of confidence procedure, with the expectation that the city council will have a new set of budgets approved on May 2.

"Barcelona will have budgets in the spring," Collboni said, who thanked ERC for its support and blamed Barcelona En Comú, lead by former mayor Ada Colau, for their failure.

As local councils cannot call elections, the motion of confidence is a mechanism that can be deployed in certain circumstances to force through certain bills, such as an annual budget.

If opposition parties cannot name an alternative mayor a month after the confidence motion, the sitting mayor will remain in place and the spending plan will go through. 

Collboni will undergo a motion of confidence with the near certainty that TriasxBCN, BComú, ERC, PP, and Vox will not be able to agree on an alternative candidate for mayor, which means that almost certainly the budget plan rejected on Friday will be approved through this mechanism.