A series of authors have shown how the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent budget cuts had recentralized territorial politics in Spain. New financial mechanisms (e.g. CORA and FLA) were implemented in order to comply with the European Union’s targets. Nevertheless, those decisions generated a series of unexpected side-effects. A set of three variables were examined in each region, that is the political discourse of autonomous leaders, the financial agreement about the new “rules of the game” and the politics of contention through the Constitutional Court. Consequently, the map of Spanish regions shows a striking consistency around political parties’ values (with some exceptions): a first group of conservative regional executives followed the path imposed by the People's Party cabinet (loyalty), while a reduced set of social-democratic regions (Asturias and Andalusia) implemented a strategy of "voice". At another level, Catalan leaders adopted an "exit" option to cope with central state's pressures.
