Spain had a general election on 23rd July 2023, which produced a hung parliament. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party managed to cobble a coalition together with far-left party Sumar and the Catalan Nationalists (Junts).
But the negotiations took four months, so the new government wasn't in place till mid November 2023. At which point they decided it was too late to do a budget for 2024, so they rolled the 2023 budget over.
Then in March 2024, they decided not to bother to do a proper budget for 2024, and to revisit things at the end of the year.
Then in March 2025, they decided it was just too hard to get an agreement between the three parties, so the 2023 budget got rolled over again. Defence was the sticking point, with Sanchez pledging to increase defence spending in line with other European countries, but his coalition partners objected.
A budget for 2026 was supposed to be presented before the end of this year - but two weeks ago, Junts (the Catalan Nationalists) decided to end Parliamentary support for Sanchez and the Socialists. But bizarrely, they say they are still part of the governing coalition - this is to ensure they don't trigger early elections.
This new development means Sanchez doesn't have the votes to pass his 2026 budget.
So they either roll over the 2023 budget again, or Sanchez will ask his party to vote with the opposition to dissolve parliament so they have early elections.
Officially, the next election must be held no later than 22nd August 2027.
This saga begs the question: do countries even need new annual budgets? Because tax thresholds are frozen at the 2023 level, tax revenue has been good. Spain's budget deficit has gone from 3.5% of GDP in 2023, to 3.2% of GDP in 2024, to 2.8% of GDP in 2025.
Another year of the 2023 budget should bring it down further.