While Pedro Sánchez’ government wavers between corruption scandals and political concessions, the Catalan separatists have found a golden opportunity to push forward their secessionist agenda. Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and other pro-independence parties are not simply negotiating with the socialist executive: they are squeezing it to the last drop, fully aware that their influence is as powerful as it is short-lived.
Their latest move is especially serious: next Monday, a bilateral commission between the central and regional governments will present a new “unique” financing model for Catalonia. If approved, the plan would grant the regional government full control over the collection, management, and spending of its taxes. A deep transformation that breaks with the common system of regional financing and would, de facto, turn Catalonia into a quasi-sovereign entity within the Spanish state.
Sánchez’ PSOE party, trapped by its need for parliamentary support to maintain its majority, has turned government stability into a bargaining chip. Despite the scandals surrounding it—from the Koldo case to suspicions involving Sánchez’ family circle— the priority seems to be clinging to power until 2027. In this survival calculation, the separatists know they hold the winning cards.
Total fiscal control has long been a historic demand of Catalan regionalism. But they have never been so close to achieving it, thanks to a PSOE that already forgave €17 billion of Catalan debt (part of a larger €83 billion package) in what the Popular Party (PP) rightly labelled a “political payoff” to Sánchez’ separatist allies. This week, Finance Minister María Jesús Montero tried to deny that Catalonia is receiving preferential treatment. But words lose weight when facts speak louder.
For ERC, this is just one more step in their roadmap. Oriol Junqueras made it clear: Catalonia cannot remain subordinated to the State’s Tax Agency. And he warned that his party’s future support will depend on what Sánchez is willing to hand over. The threat is not subtle: either there is fiscal surrender, or there is no parliamentary backing.
The Catalan case is not an exception, but the symptom of a broken political system. The socialist executive, weakened and adrift, has given in to political blackmail that puts the unity of the state and the principle of territorial solidarity at risk. Catalonia now demands the same fiscal treatment as the Basque Country and Navarre, based on historical rights which, whether legitimate or not, are enshrined in the Constitution. Catalonia, however, does not enjoy that status. It seeks to achieve it through fait accompli, with the complicity of a central government willing to do anything to survive.
What is at stake is not just a financing reform. It is the very structure of the state, its internal fairness, its fiscal sovereignty, and the equality of all Spaniards before taxes. Every concession to the separatists deepens territorial asymmetry and erodes the fundamental principle that all citizens should be treated justly, regardless of where they live.
In this context, it is hard to imagine an immediate collapse of the government. Sánchez has woven a web of dependencies that is as fragile as it is effective. As long as the scandals do not force him to resign and the opposition fails to build an alternative majority, the president will endure. But his survival will not come for free: each week, each vote in Congress, each approved budget will come at a cost, paid by Spaniards in the form of concessions, privileges, and institutional fragmentation.
And meanwhile, we are told that the real danger to the rule of law lies in other countries, not in Spain. Why? The answer lies in the alliances made in Brussels.
