Barcelona City Council will extend the 2024 budgets after the government of socialist Jaume Collboni has declared negotiations with the Comuns broken. The municipal Executive has stood up and accused the party now led by Janet Sanz of wanting to blow up an agreement that already had the yes of ERC.
The Deputy Mayor of Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion and Tourism, Jordi Valls, has announced the extension in an appearance aimed at reproaching the Comuns. “It is incomprehensible to want to cling to immovable demands,” he snapped at them, in addition to accusing them of preaching “left-wing agreements” without making them possible.
Valls, who recently presented budgets for 2025 that included a growth of 1.2%, has defended that the PSC gave in to various demands from both ERC and the Comuns. In addition, he recalled that at the end of 2024 they managed to agree with both on tax ordinances that included compensation for Sanz, such as the reduction of cruise ships or the regulation to limit temporary accommodation in the city.
In this way, for the second consecutive year Collboni is left unable to agree on budgets. But unlike last year, which chose to move them forward through a question of confidence, this time it has opted for extension (a mayor can only submit to two questions of confidence during a term and never in the last year).
Despite the fact that the Comuns assured this Monday that there was still room for negotiation, and with 48 hours left before the accounts were put to a vote in the Economy Commission, Jordi Valls has come to the conclusion that the negotiations “had no journey” and that lengthening them would only further strain the political debate.
Among the demands of the Comuns were to create a public funeral home, increase pedestrianization or maintain the reserve of 30% of social apartments in new developments. Most of them, according to the municipal government, were added by the Comuns as the negotiation progressed, and when they had already accepted other measures such as bonuses for public transport or greater investment in housing.
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