For days, the indeterminate "Operation Rufián" has been the subject of analysis and commentary in the media. Few things are more pleasing than speculating about indeterminate proposals. The spokesperson for Esquerra Republicana in the Congress of Deputies is demonstrating, once again, his great ability to place himself in the center of the dance and make everyone talk about him. This is not a minor skill for a left-wing politician, in these times.

Nostalgia is a profoundly human and universal feeling. Virtually everyone experiences nostalgia at some point in their lives. It's inevitable: as time passes, we change. And so do the people around us and the places we inhabit. Sometimes these changes are slow and only become apparent when one day you look back and find yourself longing for a world that no longer exists. Sometimes looking back can be comforting. Other times it hurts more. Especially when the changes are sudden and your world suddenly collapses.

For some time now, Catalan nationalists have been talking less and less about sovereignty and more about "demography," which in most cases is a euphemism for "immigration." Within the Catalan nationalist community, a diagnosis has become increasingly popular that identifies the strong demographic growth of recent years as the source of many of the social, cultural, and national problems facing Catalonia.

The somewhat informed reader will have heard of the reactionary turn among young men, who are already, on average, the most right-wing group in our society. They are more likely to vote for radical right-wing parties, to express anti-tax, authoritarian, and skeptical positions towards democracy, and above all, anti-feminist. In contrast, young women (in some dimensions) have moved to the left, which has opened a large ideological and values gap between men and women of the younger generations, with profound consequences.

The two main strategies for coping with climate change are, broadly speaking, adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation to a changing climate is, in fact, part of human history. It involves, in its most extreme version, major population displacements. But also changes to crops and food, to adapt to a changing context. It also implies changes in the way houses are built, in the design of cities and in the construction of infrastructures resistant to the expected changes, and others that can protect the population from extreme climatic phenomena, such as floods, major fires, heat waves, rising sea levels, etc. It is a strategy aimed at preventing the negative consequences of climate change.

Big cities, in general, are more left-wing than their countries as a whole. And it is not by chance: it is a consequence of the historical processes of formation of cities. Since the end of the 19th century, in most industrialising countries, the industrial working class began to concentrate in their metropolis. And, as a consequence, the left became stronger, both in terms of trade union movements and, later, in terms of socialist, communist, or labour parties. Over time, even as old industry disappeared from the cities, those industrial origins left an almost universal legacy of cities that were more progressive than the rest of their countries.

Beyond the distribution of seats, the elections allow us to draw many maps of the socio-political reality of the country. If in 2017 the maps of the most voted party showed a predominance of the orange colour of Ciudadanos on the coast and a hegemony of Junts per Catalunya in the rest of the country, this time the PSC has replaced Ciudadanos as the leading force in the metropolitan areas. ERC, for its part, retains its already consolidated fiefdoms in Terres de l'Ebre, and widens the perimeter of its first position towards Ponent and Anoia. But Junts retains its leading position in many of the country's interior regions, especially in the Girona area and in Central Catalonia.

The polls cannot anticipate what the scenario will be in two weeks' time, but they can help us define the scenario at the start of the campaign. Especially in terms of the vote that has already been decided. If we look at the average of the polls that have been published, what we observe is a three-way technical tie between ERC, PSC and Junts per Catalunya. The order between the three parties changes from one poll to another, and the differences in the estimated vote are always small. So small, in fact, that they fall within the margin of error of the polls. This is why, statistically, we cannot say with sufficient confidence who comes in first, who comes in second - and who comes in third.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia has not missed the opportunity to enter the elections campaign. It seems that the court wants to force an election call at a time of maximum hospital occupation and high circulation of the virus. They appeal, ironically, to the need to put an end soon to the institutional provisionalness that they themselves provoked with the disqualification of president Torra.