Overview
- AIReF argues the current setup is incoherent, citing overlapping deficit, debt, and spending rules that create unworkable targets across levels of government.
- Cristina Herrero says a congressional vote to reject the government’s deficit and debt path is practically irrelevant because the binding guide is the spending rule.
- The watchdog highlights a 3.5% cap on net primary spending growth for 2026 and faults the 0.1% regional deficit target for ignoring that cap.
- AIReF contends that, under the spending rule, regions in aggregate should target balance or a slight surplus in 2026, with asymmetric room across communities such as Valencia and Murcia.
- The agency urges reforms via organic law rather than decree and disputes the government’s claim of broad EU compliance, noting a December 31, 2025 deadline and estimating debt would be about 69% of GDP today if past rules had been met instead of roughly 101.6%.