The government of Salvador Illa wants, yes or yes, to have budgets next year so as not to suffer from the limitations of this year and the wear and tear of constant negotiations with the groups to approve three credit supplements – which total almost 4 billion euros – which give it a little oxygen and allow it to launch a project forward to take advantage of the work of the government. To achieve this, the Government is not lacking in gestures towards its investiture partners -ERC and Comuns-, who are at the same time the strong candidates to advance the 2026 accounts. This Wednesday, one of these gestures took place with one of the subjects which arouse the most sensitivity and consensus: free daycare.
The previous ERC government marked a big goal by promoting this initiative in 2022, starting with the Infantil2 stage. The idea was to extend it to the rest of the nursery school sectors, but the lack of budgets and the hasty end of the legislature slowed its progress. Salvador Illa’s executive wants to ensure continuity – out of conviction and because this is part of ERC’s conditions for investing in Illa – but it also finds itself faced with a lack of liquidity to achieve this.
This Wednesday, the Government wanted to make a gesture, which also serves as pressure, towards its partners and the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, met with the spokespersons of the ERC, Jordi Albert, and the leader of Comuns, Jéssica Albiach, to approve the constitution of a technical group which “will analyze preschool education of the first cycle to face the challenge of its free and universalization”, indicated the Ministry of Education in a press release at the end of the meeting.
The group will be made up of 10 people – Education has refused to publish the names – who will study for three months the different elements that make up this educational stage, such as financing, management, legal framework, personnel… After this period, the group will present its proposal to “promote the universalization and gratuity” of this stage, although it should also serve as a basis for the development of the future Law 0-3. And, in addition to free education, the sector faces other important challenges, which have sparked protests in recent years, such as reducing ratios, increasing staff and its professional recognition or establishing educational agreements with private schools.
Free entry is easier to achieve, as only budgets would be required (although this has recently become a daunting task), but universality is another thing, that is, ensuring that every student who applies gets a place. The free Infantil2 program highlighted the hidden demand for this stage, with families choosing to keep their children at home because they could not afford the nearly 400 euros that a daycare (with dining room) can cost monthly. The problem is that there aren’t enough public places for everyone. The government tried to expand the offer by creating new nurseries with the help of European funds, but the slowness of the procedures and the lack of resources to be able to maintain them in the future led to the loss of a large part of these resources.
Union pressure
Major unions also made progress toward approving budgets. CCOO and UGT presented themselves jointly to ask the government to increase social spending by 3.6 billion in the 2026 accounts compared to 2023. During a press conference, the general secretaries of the two organizations presented their proposals and defended the need for budgets “adapted” to current economic growth. “Catalonia needs new budgets, and it needs them now. We cannot continue operating with a budget extension from 2023 because the economy and priorities have changed,” said UGT general secretary Belén López.
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