The budget proposal, amounting to 228 million euros, had been approved last week by the Governing Board, composed of the Popular Party (PP) and Unión por Leganés (ULEG). However, opposition groups – the PSOE, Podemos-IU, Más Madrid, and Vox – united their votes to dismiss the document.
The main reason cited by the opposition was the report from the municipal Audit Office, which included numerous objections. Nevertheless, the Finance Councilor downplayed these warnings, stating that the budget had “all favorable reports” and that the Audit Office's opinion “is not binding.”
“"It is very sad to make excuses with the Audit Office's report because, whatever the budget, they were going to vote against it for partisan interests."
During the plenary debate, the spokesperson for Podemos-IU criticized the inclusion of budget items with unexplained increases and expenses with scarce information. They also questioned the municipal surplus of 117 million euros, attributing it to a lack of negotiating capacity by the local government.
For their part, the spokesperson for Más Madrid reproached the local Executive for the 75 million euro increase in the surplus during their tenure, which, in their opinion, highlighted problems in executing previous budgets. They described the presented text as a “propaganda” tool rather than a real project for the city.
From Vox, their spokesperson questioned the budget's arrival at the Plenary outside the usual deadlines and denounced a reduction in revenue without sufficient justification. Similarly, the socialist spokesperson stated that the document contained “irregularities” and had been processed late without addressing the Audit Office's observations.
In defense of the budget, the ULEG spokesperson accused the opposition groups of blocking the accounts for political reasons. While acknowledging the existence of “annotations” by the Audit Office, they argued that these were not sufficient reason to prevent its approval.
