Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, Spain’s once booming economy has taken a turn for the worse. The combination of their current unemployment rate—a startling twenty five percent—swelling deficits, high interest rates, and weak banks has caused Spain to become one of the European Union’s most worrisome issues.In 2010, the center-left government, under former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, began implementing a series of austerity measures in order to control and reduce the deficit. However, the public sentiment of unhappiness with this futile Socialist government ultimately led to its downfall in November 2011; the conservative Popular Party, led by current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, won a parliamentary majority of 186 out of 350 seats with 99.8 percent of the vote.

Many Spaniards suffering from the woes of the European debt crisis hoped that this conservative party would be the one to alleviate their financial pains. However, two years later, the situation has still not improved.

On Thursday, September 27, 2012, The Spanish government revealed a draft of their 2013 Budget Plan. This proposal, working in conjunction with Prime Minister Rajoy’s July austerity package, entails tax increases and reduced government spending in order to guarantee the country meets the deficit-cutting target agreed upon by the euro zone.

By cutting overall spending by 40 billion euros—51.7 million dollars—the government will be freezing the salaries of public workers and cutting spending for unemployment benefits. The plan will be adopted in two weeks, since Prime Minister Rajoy’s party holds the majority; however, recent and passionate public protests assure that the new plan will not serve to calm the disgruntled demonstrators—infuriated by the astounding unemployment rate and seemingly endless recession.

Different regions of Spain, the most vocal and economically powerful being Catalonia, have developed a revolutionary spirit in face of this financial peril and have threatened the government with the possibility of secession. After presenting their draft on Thursday, their response to this bold prospect of autonomy was to fight any attempts made by the region.

This friction between the government and the regions could cause even further fiscal failure. Despite the current state of disarray, Mr. Montoro, the current budget minister, remains confident that 2013 will be “the last year of recession” for Spain.