‘A theft from citizens’: Spain hits 1,000 days without a new budget

Spain Marks 1,000 Days Without Approving a New National Budget

Usagevpn.com – Spain has crossed 1,000 days without adopting a new national budget, leaving the government to operate under spending plans originally approved for the 2023 financial year. The milestone puts renewed focus on the limits of governing through extensions and exceptional measures while the country faces housing pressures, energy concerns and European fiscal commitments.

Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing coalition, formed by PSOE and Sumar, has not secured parliamentary approval for a budget during the current legislative period. The administration has instead continued using the budget passed in 2022 for 2023, after lacking the votes needed in the Congress of Deputies to advance a replacement.

When Sánchez returned as prime minister following the 2023 election, his government did not command a parliamentary majority. It maintained that the political situation created by that election made the presentation of a new budget bill especially difficult. Promises to bring forward budgets in 2024 and 2025 did not result in a vote, and Sánchez ruled out a new budget for 2026 in June.

A constitutional mechanism under strain

Spain’s Constitution requires the government to submit the national budget to Congress at least three months before the previous budget expires. At the same time, Article 134.3 permits the existing budget to remain in force if legislators do not approve a new one. That safeguard has allowed public administration to continue, but critics argue it was intended as a short-lived remedy rather than a lasting way to direct national policy.

César García Novoa, a professor of financial and tax law at the University of Santiago de Compostela, said the repeated extensions stretch the intended use of the rule.

“The regulation, without spelling it out, is designed for an extension of one year at most; it is an emergency mechanism,” he said.

García Novoa noted that other European countries also have provisions for extending budgets. In his view, however, those measures are generally connected to brief and exceptional circumstances, such as Belgium’s periods of governmental crisis.

The issue is more than procedural. A national budget is the principal framework through which a government sets spending priorities, assigns funding and signals its economic direction. Operating with an older budget means that newer priorities may need to be financed through separate measures rather than being incorporated into a comprehensive annual plan approved by parliament.

Opposition calls it a democratic anomaly

Fernando Navarrete, a Partido Popular member of the European Parliament who sits on its budget committee, argued that the prolonged use of an extension represents a democratic problem. He said that, before Sánchez, the accepted understanding was that a budget extension could last for one year.

“If after that there is still no majority to approve a budget, you have to call elections,” Navarrete said.

Navarrete has described the 1,000-day period as a democratic anomaly and said the Popular Party would seek legal changes to prevent a recurrence if it governs after elections expected next year. He also criticised the absence of a fresh budget as depriving citizens of a chance to have their representatives determine how public funds should be allocated.

“A theft from citizens, who have not been able to decide through their representatives how much public money is spent and on what,” he said.

Sánchez once took a similarly strict position while in opposition. Addressing then-prime minister Mariano Rajoy of the centre-right Partido Popular, Sánchez said that governing without a budget was not governing at all.

Government points to crisis support and housing funding

The Ministry of Finance rejects the argument that the extended budget has left the government unable to act. Officials have stressed that measures were approved to shield people from the effects of crises linked to the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, including higher energy prices.

Housing has become a central political concern. Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research identifies access to housing as Spaniards’ leading worry, and ministry officials point to €7 billion assigned to the State Housing Plan for 2026-2030. Because that programme was not part of the 2023 budget, financing it requires extraordinary channels.

For opponents, that reliance illustrates the problem. Navarrete argues that emergency tools created for different circumstances are being used to support policies that would ordinarily form part of a full budgetary decision. He maintains that the lack of an updated spending plan has reduced Spain’s ability to respond coherently to global disruptions.

European commitments and Brussels scrutiny

The budget impasse also has implications beyond Spain’s domestic political debate. Since 2024, European Union fiscal rules have required member states to set out medium-term plans aimed at maintaining sustainable public finances while supporting investment and reforms. Spain has presented such a plan, but critics say a new national budget is needed to demonstrate clearly how the commitments will be delivered.

García Novoa believes continued reliance on the 2023 framework narrows Spain’s ability to define reforms requested by the European Union and damages its credibility in Brussels. Navarrete similarly argues that the country cannot adequately show how it will meet its medium-term plan without a current budget.

“The European Commission relies on its own economic forecasts to supervise us,” Navarrete said.

European institutions have been aware that Spain did not approve budgets for 2024, 2025 or 2026. The issue has largely been treated as an internal political matter, rather than prompting an especially forceful response. Navarrete disputes that approach, saying Spain is failing to meet European commitments, spending excessively and leaving difficult decisions for the next government.

For now, the extended 2023 budget keeps the state functioning. But the passage of 1,000 days highlights a wider question for Spain’s political system: how long can an annual emergency provision serve as the foundation for economic policy before it becomes a lasting substitute for parliamentary agreement?