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Scheherazade told stories in order to stay alive; each night she would finish neither her story nor the plot, and instead would make a promise that there would be more. The result of her efforts was that the arrival of dawn never brought about the final decision. In One Thousand and One Nights, gaining time meant preserving one’s life.
Pedro Sánchez has made the same kind of delay into a method of governing—it is no coincidence that his autobiography is titled Handbook for Resistance (2019). There is always another negotiation to be concluded, another agreement to be announced, and another situation which allegedly calls for patience. The following chapter promises to deal with what the previous one had left undone. In the meantime, the prime minister stays in office.
Spain has now reached 1,000 days without having presented a new national budget, and the financial accounts approved in 2022 for the 2023 financial year are still being used to support government operations as the deadline for submitting a budget for 2027 nears. The longer these extensions continue, the greater the gap becomes between the country these accounts were intended for and the country they now have to serve; likewise, the gap increases between being legitimately sworn in and still holding the political power to govern.
That distinction is important. Sánchez became prime minister as a result of a parliamentary investiture. The lack of a new budget does not nullify that vote, nor does it automatically render his government unlawful. Yet political legitimacy requires more than simply remembering the day enough votes were assembled to enter the Moncloa Palace. It requires the ability to agree on a course of action, accept responsibility, and put fundamental decisions before the judgment of the people’s representatives.
A budget provides a concrete form to that capacity. It converts promises into priorities and then priorities into committed funding. It causes parliamentary allies to have to decide which programme they are willing to support together. Otherwise, it becomes all the more difficult to tell the difference between a governing majority and a group of parties whose common interest it is to prevent a change of government.
The Spanish Constitution designates the government with the duty of preparing the budget and gives Parliament the role of examining, amending and approving it. The Constitution provides for an annual budget, requires that it be presented in a timely manner and permits the previous financial accounts to be extended if the new budgets have not been approved before the new financial year starts. This continuity is specifically guaranteed by Article 134. Nevertheless, the fact that an extension is legally available does not prove that a government has political credibility when it must rely on it repeatedly.
It is there that Sánchez’s problem with his legitimacy stems from. The fact that the administration has been able to carry on means that there are measures in place to prevent paralysis. However, this does not prove that the prime minister has a majority who can back his programme.
Political legitimacy is lost when those in power continually fail to face the kinds of tests that show how much support they have. Leaving a new budget to be drawn up every year means an important decision remains unresolved—namely, what the government intends to do with taxpayers’ money and which elected representatives will take responsibility for making those decisions. Simply making announcements, introducing individual measures or reaching occasional agreements is not enough to give a complete answer.
Economic performance cannot decide the issue either, since even under favourable conditions accountability is necessary. If it is accepted that growth makes up for the inability to pass a budget, then democratic scrutiny would become dependent on the economic conditions of the time. Parliamentary responsibility must still have value both in times of prosperity and in times of crisis.
For conservatives the principle concerning institutions should be clear: in order to achieve stability it is necessary to respect the responsibilities connected with holding office. If the term is to be used as a reason for keeping a prime minister who is unable to obtain support for major decisions, then it has no meaning. The state demands continuity and the government must show that it is entitled to direct it.
Sánchez should draw up a budget, secure the support of parliament and then accept the political consequences of the result. If he is still unable to gather a reliable budgetary majority, the right thing to do is to hand the decision back to the electorate. Holding an election would constitute a political response to a governing programme that has been exhausted, even if the lack of a budget does not automatically call for one.
Scheherazade needed her story to go on. The Spaniards want a government which can be held responsible for more than just its own survival. Once every thousand days, another promise of a settlement is not enough. An extension keeps the budget in operation. It does not, however, restore the political legitimacy of a government living at the expense of others.