Barcelona's 2024 budget has been automatically approved

he Barcelona's municipal budget for 2024 has been automatically approved This Thursday, May 2nd The opposition to the city council made no motion of censure To the mayor of the city, Jaume Colboni, within 30 working days stipulated by law A matter of trust. This mechanism was activated on March 27, after the municipal plenary session first rejected the accounts presented by the Peaceful Council government and then withdrew confidence from the mayor in an extraordinary plenary session.

Therefore, although the general meeting did not approve Colboni's calculations at any time, the budget is automatically approved on Thursday, once it is published in the journal. Municipal newspaper From Barcelona City Council and others Official Gazette of the Province of BarcelonaEarly in the morning.

How did I get here?

In the full vote, the first budget of Jaume Colboni's term achieved only the desired result ERC support (With whom the Peaceful Council concluded the budget agreement), while the rest of the forces voted against it. them too Ada Colao commonswho left the door open until the last minute to vote in favor of him if at the same time Colboni concluded a governmental agreement with them.

But this option did not come to fruition, so Colboni stayed with him 15 upvotes —10 from the PSC and five from the ERC —, a number insufficient to reach an absolute majority (21) in the plenary session. TriasxBCN, With a subscriber, s I Fox – 26 members of the Council – said “no” to the budget.

Faced with this scenario, the mayor chose to activate the confidence-giving mechanism that allowed him to approve the minority accounts. The reason is that the opposition has not submitted a proposal after a month Motion to censure the mayor By law, the budget was approved. The City Council's calculations and the distances between the various forces already predicted that there would be no suggestion of blame.

Next stop: government agreement?

In the same plenary session in which the issue of trust was activated, Jaume Colboni took two things for granted. First, the opposition will not be able to file a censure petition and, as a result, will have a budget after 30 days. The second, which will now focus on creating a government charter: “The next step will be the expansion of municipal government.”“, said the mayor.

With the budget agreement with the European Research Council under his arm, everything indicates that his main ally is the Republican group. In fact, Colboni showed this week in an interview with the newspaper “El Periódico” that he supports the formation of a PSC-ERC government in the minority before the summer. However, if the coalition is reached, the city government will remain in the minority – 15 members out of 41 in the municipal plenum – and therefore, Colbone will have to continue to seek collusion with other opposition forces to approve projects.