Neither Junts, nor BComú, nor ERC, nor the PP nor Vox will this afternoon support the municipal Finance Committee's budget proposal for next year from the executive of Mayor Jaume Collboni. Opposition councilors will block the initial approval of Barcelona City Council's accounts for 2024.
The reasons for this rejection are not only in the numbers. The aspirations of one and the other to assume government responsibilities also explain this situation. Xavier Trias and Ada Colau want to seriously determine the action of the Consistory. Its ranks insist on underlining the municipal government's unwillingness to dialogue, a complaint that the socialists, at the same time, address to the communes.
Mayor Collboni seems more willing to seek specific support than long-term alliances, at least for now. The investiture process of Pedro Sánchez as president of Spain is also determining the situation.
The truth is that the scenario seems a bit unusual, more hostile than initially expected. The initial approval of municipal budgets is usually a procedure for the political groups to continue negotiating the Consistory accounts with a view to subsequent final approval. In any case, the socialists are not completely between a rock and a hard place. In fact, they have several options: withdraw the item in question from the agenda, try to extend this year's accounts and even consider a matter of confidence...
According to several sources consulted by La Vanguardia, the most likely option with just a few hours to go before the commission is held is that Collboni chooses to try to extend this year's accounts. It seems less likely that the mayor will submit to a vote of confidence. I would definitely lose her. Then a period of one month would open for the opposition groups to present an alternative candidate for mayor. And even more improbable is that all those councilors could reach a similar consensus. In this case, Collboni's budgets would be automatically approved.
The municipal government could also withdraw today, on the horn, the initial approval of the budget from the agenda and gain some time. The socialists, at least until yesterday, were in favor of the political debate taking place and of all publicly portraying each other. These days the mayor Collboni insists whenever he has the opportunity to emphasize that if the budget is not approved in the most orthodox way, it will endanger around 715 million euros in current expenditure and investments for the coming year.
The opposition groups complain that the PSC government has had its own script written for weeks, that they really have no desire to negotiate anything. The truth is that Collboni and Trias maintained a few contacts these days. In fact, it is not improbable that Junts councilors will finally support the tax ordinances, especially after the municipal executive and the Restoration Guild reached an agreement yesterday on the abolition of the terrace tax bonus. But these meetings did not finish fruiting. The sovereignists want their electoral program to be reflected in the work of the City Council.
The commons also share this goal, probably even more eagerly. They demand a structural pact, they are ready to enter the government and they regret that mayor Collboni is so prone to variable geometry. They also want ERC to enter into this three-way progressive government pact, something that at this moment is not in the mind of the socialists, but neither in that of the republicans.
Not even with some measures announced by the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Jordi Valls, such as the increase in tax pressure on tourist activities or a substantial increase in social payments, which the PSC puts at 14%, it has not been enough for the commons to loosen the rope. In fact, the contacts these days between the teams of Jaume Collboni and ex-mayor Ada Colau are being minimal.
ERC, for its part, is in a very complex situation. It is immersed in an internal process of electing the new management of the Barcelona federation which will not be resolved until Friday. The winning candidacy of this process will define the group's road map for this mandate and will guide the ship of the Republicans and their relations with the other formations in one direction or another.
Sources from the republican group pointed out yesterday that their vote in the Economy committee in relation to the budget proposal has not yet been decided. However, the same sources also emphasized that the socialists did not show any willingness to negotiate these days, that they did not try to seduce them in any way. In addition, the Republicans did not quite believe Mayor Collboni's warning, that if the budget is not approved in an orthodox way in the city, more than 715 million euros in investments would be at risk.
And the people, the councilors who made possible the investiture of Collboni as mayor in order to block the way to Colau, who at one point considered the possibility of abstaining from the vote on the budget proposal, yesterday also showed more supporters of the no.
"At the moment no one has contacted us - they point out from the municipal group of the Popular Party. Without dialogue there is no agreement". "It seems that they thought that by now the matter of Sánchez would be resolved and also with whom. We have the feeling that they do not want to reach any agreement until they know what is happening in Spain", they add.
The two Vox councilors will also vote today against the socialist budget proposal.
