The political uncertainty caused by the negotiations over the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez and the internal problems of the major parties threaten to block the political actions of the Barcelona City Council. The mayor, Jaume Collboni, saw this Friday that none of the three parties that could support the provision of new budgets for the city and the adoption of the new tax regulations did anything in this direction. The Socialist City Council, which had previously intended to approve the bills with a variable geometry and agreements on the left and right, has indicated a change of strategy after the plenary session this Friday. While Collboni previously wanted to first approve the budgets and then find one or two government partners for the rest of the term, he has now assumed that he has to do everything at the same time. “My duty as mayor is to continue the dialogue, finalize the proposals and see what feasibility exists to enable a budget agreement and the city’s ability to govern,” explained Collboni at the end of the plenary session this Friday.
Collboni outlined this change in strategy in response to a question from the leader of the PP, Daniel Sirera, about the support and agreements he wants to reach for the approval of the 2024 budgets. Sirera has suggested Xavier Trias, of TriasxBCN, and Ada Colau, of BComú, will support Collboni “in exchange for a chairmanship”. In addition, he accused the mayor of just trying to “get to Moncloa.” “Stop thinking about the future of Pedro Sánchez and think more about the citizens of Barcelona,” Sirera said.
The PP’s question came at the end of a plenary session in which the opposition again rejected the proposal for tax regulations that provided for new developments in the terrace tax and an increase in taxes linked to tourism. Collboni has ten out of a total of 41 council members. He would need another eleven council members to govern with an absolute majority. One possibility would be to include the eleven Junts representatives. The other option would be to add the nine councilors of the lower house and the five of the ERC to the socialists. At the moment, none of the three parties are revealing their cards, partly because of the internal debate in which they are immersed and partly because of the political uncertainty resulting from the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez.
All in all, Collboni remains optimistic about the approval of the 2024 annual accounts: “This city council and this government will, without a doubt, have budgets,” he explained, appealing to Junts and BComú as they are the two groups that have specifically reported their willingness to reach an agreement.
The municipal administration must present a new budget proposal for which there is no deadline, while the regulations will be automatically extended since they were not approved this Friday. If the script does not change, the main victims of the non-approval of the tax regulations this Friday will be the city’s restaurateurs, who will have to pay 100% of the terrace fee due to the impossibility of the progressive proposal that the government team and the restaurateurs had agreed to. On the whole, restaurateurs pay a total of eight million annually instead of the originally agreed 4.6 million.
The government team commissioned Trias per Barcelona, the local brand of Junts per Catalunya, to carry out this vote, as it was a measure agreed between the city council and the restaurant sector. Junts had sold its support dearly by linking it to a two-point drop in the IBI, which meant a significant drop in earnings. “There is still time to find a solution for restaurateurs,” said Junts spokesman Ramon Tremosa, who proposed after the meeting to approve the 75 percent discount for restaurateurs for another year in the November 7 plenary session.
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In addition to the tax on terraces, the new tax on tourist apartments and on cruise ships, which allow short stays in Barcelona and are considered to contribute the least to the city, could not be approved. In this case, the government team trusted the community to agree, but Ada Colau’s team did not cooperate because they considered the general approach to be “unambitious.” The government team believes that both the Junts and the House of Commons rejected Collboni’s plans for “political reasons” and not “in the interests of the city”. “If they want to talk about chairs, we’ll talk about chairs,” sources abound, chafing at potential partners’ demands.
Less income from the terrace tax
Barcelona restaurateurs will have to pay eight million euros for the use of the terraces in 2024 – the rate set in 2019 but greatly reduced by the pandemic – if the opposition continues to block the approval of the agreement reached with the sector and established the final one Collection at 4.6 million. Trias per Barcelona, the Collboni government’s natural partner in the matter, says it wants to salvage the situation with a temporary agreement that would consist of keeping the current tariff frozen for another year. With the extension, restaurateurs would pay around two million, as much as this year. Although this would benefit the catering industry, the city council would receive 2.6 million less than expected with the agreement that the restaurateurs themselves had reached with the city government.
However, if nothing changes for the time being, the amount to be paid will be eight million. Following the opposition’s refusal to agree with the PSC on the new tariff, the director of the Restaurant Guild, Roger Pallarols, has stated that the sector continues to defend the agreement with the Barcelona government, stating that he does not understand “that there is no solution”. if it is not possible to return to the 2019 tariff, as the majority of parties said in plenary.
City Councilor for Economic Affairs Jordi Valls assured after the plenary session that they would continue to hold meetings with restaurateurs to “try to find a solution” after the city government’s proposal in the plenary session was unsuccessful.
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