Overview
- The Congress voted on Tuesday, July 14 to reject the government's 2026–2028 'senda de estabilidad' after PP, Vox, UPN and Junts cast the decisive no votes.
- The 'senda' sets deficit targets and is a procedural prerequisite for drafting the State budgets so its rejection forces the government to revise and resubmit its fiscal roadmap.
- Finance Minister Arcadi España defended the plan as protecting the welfare state and said it would provide about €5.8 billion extra to autonomous communities over three years.
- Junts repeated past rejections, calling the proposal an 'estafa' for Catalonia and pressing for higher regional deficit allowances while the PNV voted yes but demanded a clear election timetable and warned a more restrictive fallback path would apply if the senda falls; key government figures including Pedro Sánchez were absent from the Hemicycle during the vote.
- If the budgets later fail in Parliament the precedent is that the prime minister may dissolve the Cortes and call snap elections, a step that would affect public spending plans and regional funding ahead of municipal and regional votes.