ERC demands the maximum for the Budgets

The central government would lose 30 billion euros in revenue if the Generalitat were to collect personal income tax.

The 2026 State Budget could end up being the most expensive in our country's history. The president of the ERC (Republican Revolutionary Party), Oriol Junqueras, who is still facing a ban from holding public office for his leading role in the independence process, yesterday revealed the price of his votes for the Public Accounts: that the Government immediately transfer management of personal income tax to the Catalan government. This measure, if implemented, would mean the State losing up to €30 billion in revenue and would undermine the central government's own accounting structures.

It's true that this isn't a new demand, as the Socialists made commitments to the separatists, both in the investiture pact for Pedro Sánchez in November 2023 and in the one that allowed Salvador Illa to become regional president in August 2024, to forgive part of the Catalan government's debt to the state and to provide it with "unique financing." But at this point, after his repeated failures to comply, Sánchez's partners no longer trust him and don't seem willing to give him more time to meet their demands.

Last week, María Jesús Montero tried to separate the budget negotiations from the implementation of the commitment to grant a fiscal quota to the Catalan Generalitat , including the transfer of all taxes generated in this autonomous community, but Junqueras dismantled the fiction that the First Vice President and Minister of Finance tried to sustain .

There won't be two negotiations in parallel, and to force the governing coalition parties to back down, they will present a bill recognizing the Catalan government's ability to independently collect 100% of personal income tax in the region. This proposal, which is limited to the maximum, ignores the technical and practical difficulties that tax inspectors have been warning about, as well as the lack of resources currently available to the Catalan Tax Agency. However, it leaves both national and Catalan governability in jeopardy , as Salvador Illa's government also needs the support of the ERC (Republican Revolutionary Party) to push through its own budget for the next fiscal year.

Sánchez anticipated that if the 2026 Budget is rejected by Parliament, he would once again extend the 2023 Budget , but in that scenario, there would no longer be any doubt about his inability to govern.