New Catalan government to forgo new budget for 2024

The new Catalan government led by Salvador Illa will renounce the idea of having a new budget plan for 2024, instead recovering the spending plan agreed with Esquerra Republicana in February which did not receive the necessary support in parliament.

Salvador Illa will still need to find the support of Comuns Sumar for this, though, as they had rejected this spending plan back in February. 

When those budgets failed to pass, despite having the support of Esquerra and the Socialists, former president Pere Aragonès decided to call elections, which were won by the Socialists who now lead the executive.

The Socialists now want to focus instead on preparing a new spending plan for 2025 and for it to be in force in January. 

Salvador Illa will prioritize negotiations with Esquerra Republicana and Comuns Sumar as partners to negotiate the spending plan. Combined, all three parties just about reach a parliamentary majority. 

It is planned that in a meeting on Tuesday, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alicia Romero, will present a report on the new government's options for spending plan this year.

The 2024 budgets planned by the previous executive only took into account the 14 ministries that Aragonès led, but Illa's government now has two more - Sports and Linguistic Policy. 

Another element that has been taken into account is the calendar. With only four months left in the year, new budgets would mean almost consecutive negotiations.

The decision to focus on 2025's accounts means that these budgets will not be able to be as expansive as those agreed between ERC and PSC for this year, as Brussels has already announced that it will recover the fiscal rules that were relaxed due to the pandemic and will return to the 0.1% deficit margin.