The INE has published the GDP data for the year 2025, which confirm the phenomenon that has dominated the Spanish economy for decades: an ever-increasing concentration of economic activity and wealth in Madrid and an ever-widening gap between the capital of the Kingdom and the surrounding territories. If in the year 2000 the Madrid economy represented 17.5% of the Spanish total, in 2025 it has already reached 20%. In contrast, Catalonia keeps its share of the pie stable: it was 18.9% in the year 2000 and continues to be so 25 years later.

This Wednesday, the torrential downpours did not repeat, but some scattered and weak showers that were not initially forecast still appeared, especially along the coast and the pre-coastal area. A changing day that was also accompanied by a rise in temperatures. However, October will begin with an increase in instability, as from this Thursday onwards, showers and thunderstorms will gain ground irregularly across various regions. All of this is the result of the combination of cold air at high altitude with the entry of humid maritime winds, driven by an anticyclone located further north. Thermometers will drop over the coming days and, little by little, will gradually normalize.

The death of Olga, an evicted resident of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat who committed suicide on September 7th, has brought me suddenly, head-on and in tears, back to November 2010. Almost automatically, like a sudden spring of memory. On November 11th of that year, Miguel committed suicide, also in L'Hospitalet, shortly before being evicted. So far and yet so close, between the houses where Olga and Miguel lived there is only a kilometer or so, fifteen minutes on foot and 15 years and 10 months of distance. Connect the dots, because in between there are thousands of evicted families –400,000 in the Catalan Countries–. Even if only descriptively, politically geolocated, it must be added that in November 2010 Catalonia was governed by a formal left-wing tripartite. Today, an informal tripartite. In between, everything has happened and everyone has passed through, here –Mas, Puigdemont, Torra, Aragonès, Illa– and there –from Rajoy to Sánchez–. I say this because between both deaths, what has not changed one bit is the immobilism in housing matters, whoever was governing and with the relevant nuances. But everything is terrifying and leaves us hollowed out, when time never passes in vain. In 2010, the stock of protected social housing in Catalonia did not reach 2%, well below the European average of 15%. In 2026 we are still there: 1.7%. At the tail end of the EU and on the podium of daily evictions. 15 little years and nothing has happened here. Or perhaps it has. Rearrange the chairs: between now and 2040, in the Barcelona area alone, 50,000 protected housing apartments will be lost. And that explains so many things; too many things, perhaps; or maybe all at once.However, of the things that have indeed changed –and for the worse– I fear that the most savage is to reveal how the legitimization of cruelty, the apology for social sadism, the indifference towards the suffering of others, and the aporophobia that so criminalizes poverty have grown exponentially. A growth that also takes a demoscopic and electoral form, with the rise of the extreme rights that condense all their courage into the manifest cowardice of always blaming those who are most screwed for everything. White bullets for black balls. There are those who even –without knowing any detail of the case, as if they were at a bar counter– have wanted to opine gratuitously about Olga's death, pretending to decouple the eviction from the suicide and describing the informative link as "journalistic irresponsibility". I will spare myself from delving into the high doses of mean-spirited insensitivity, but it had been a long time since I saw someone so misinformed talking about misinformation and informing us so punctually of their brutal misinformation. The person who said this is the vice-president of a newly born and singular Federation of Neighbors presided over by hotelier Joan Gaspart. All of this ties in with one of the most symptomatic data points from the latest CEO, where response and voting orientation are crossed when asked "if one can almost always trust people". 41% defend it. Those who defend it the most are not the voters of Vox, PP, and AC and, in the face of all the dead ends and difficulties, they believe this is a civil war of all against all. On the other side, there are those who know that, in the face of all the difficulties and the same dead ends, there is nothing more than the democratic possibility of life in common.

This Tuesday brings the peak of the instability, with a round of downpours and storms that is leaving behind the classic torrential rains of late summer and early autumn, further fueled by sea water that is warmer than it should be. At dawn, it already began to rain in some regions, especially in the center and south of the country, and throughout the morning the bulk of the precipitation has been concentrating on the coast and pre-coast of Barcelona. Where it has rained the most so far is between the south of Anoia, Alt Penedès, and Garraf, with some local accumulations of more than 90 or 100 l/m² in just three hours, which has caused rivers and streams to rise suddenly. This is the case of the Anoia river, which has reached the danger threshold, with a flow that has suddenly risen to 93 m³/s. In these areas, an alert has been sent due to the risk of flooding.

The weekend has been marked by fairly calm weather, with temperatures that have been dropping and which yesterday did not exceed 31 ºC in the warmest areas of Ponent and the Ebro valley. Values are still very high for this time of year, but nothing like the nearly 38 ºC of previous days. After so many days of anticyclones and atypically summery heat, this coming week promises to be much more unsettled and cooler, with rain that will end up making an appearance in practically every part of the country throughout the days, and thermometers that will continue to drop. It seems that autumn, now yes, wants to make itself truly felt.

It is a done deal. It only remains to be officially confirmed who will replace Cardinal Joan Josep Omella as Archbishop of Barcelona and when. Before it is made public, however, the apostolic nuncio to Spain, Piero Pioppo – the envoy of Pope Leo XIV – was in Tarragona last week, from Tuesday to Friday, to meet with the archbishop of the diocese and primate of Catalonia, Joan Planellas.

The heat peaked this Friday with maximums of up to 37.4 ºC at the Riba-roja reservoir and 37 ºC in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre) and Aldover (Baix Ebre), but this weekend has started with less heat and the maximum values have remained around 32 or 33 ºC. This Saturday we already noticed an increase in thin clouds, a situation that will repeat on Sunday, when we will also have low coastal clouds. The coming week looks more unsettled and cooler, although still with a generally mild atmosphere.

The heat peaked this Friday with an atypical temperature spike that left values more typical of the height of summer than the first days of autumn, especially in the south and in Ponent. Unchecked heat that reached up to 37.4 ºC at the Riba-roja reservoir and 37 ºC in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre), or 37 ºC also in Aldover (Baix Ebre). Furthermore, 35 ºC was exceeded in areas of Ponent, and 34 ºC in parts of the northeast, the Priorat, and the Pre-Pyrenees of Lleida.

Pay attention today to the temperatures, as they will hit a ceiling, with rampant heat that is completely out of place for these dates. The most notable rise will be experienced in inland areas and in the south of the country, with an environment that will be more typical of the peak of summer than of early autumn. Maximums may locally reach 38 ºC in the interior of the Ebro, and the breaking of some heat records cannot be ruled out, for example, in the Pyrenees and the Pre-Pyrenees. The mercury will drop over the weekend, but the environment will remain too warm for the time of year. All this with continued sun and anticyclonic calm, while waiting for the weather to start changing next week.

Autumn arrived yesterday, but the atmosphere remains very warm and atypically summery in the middle of the day. On Wednesday, many maximums of 27 to 33 °C were recorded again, reaching 34 °C in Ponent and the Ebro valley. And pay attention because between Thursday and Friday, thermometers will rise again and a new heat peak will occur, with values that are runaway for this time of year. Only at night will we remember that we have already entered autumn, as the coolness will be maintained due to the fact that the nights are getting longer, which allows the thermometers to drop for more hours. In fact, today we wake up to an even cooler atmosphere everywhere. All this with sun and calm thanks to the powerful anticyclone that embraces a large part of Europe. The weather maps do not predict changes until next week.

At 02:05 a.m. we officially entered the astronomical autumn. We are changing seasons, but not the weather, since, although we are waking up to cool temperatures in general, today will remain warm with summery air and radiant sun in the middle of the day. An anticyclonic calm that will accompany us for a few more days, as no significant changes are seen until at least next week. Therefore, we will continue for many more days with thermometers above average. Yesterday, summer said goodbye with temperatures that again exceeded 30 °C in many regions, especially in the northeast and inland. In fact, in the interior of the Ebro, temperatures were around 35 °C for another day.

President Puigdemont has broken his silence to the media this weekend and has spoken about his return to Catalonia. It has been more than a year since he granted an interview to any Catalan media outlet and it remains the same, because he has granted the interview to the English newspaper The Sunday Times. The headline they have given it already explains that, for the international public, the Procés and its leaders seem so far away that it does not even put his name in the headline: “An exiled Catalan separatist has no regrets and considers returning to Spain”. And as a subtitle: “Carles Puigdemont has spent nine turbulent years away from home, during which he has suffered an arrest and lost his parents without having the opportunity to see them. Now he wants to «breathe reality» again”. The president in exile explained it this way, in this interview granted at his home, in Waterloo, a few kilometers from Brussels:Puigdemont: “The current Catalonia is not the same as it was when I left the country. During all this time I have tried to be in contact with my team and with the people, to understand exactly what is happening in Catalonia. But I know that it is not the same as smelling, touching, feeling, being among the people. This is my first intention when I arrive: to immerse myself in reality. To touch again. To feel, to smell the country”. When Puigdemont speaks publicly in this tone, it is clear that he now sees it closer than ever. And following the thread of his response, it is by feeling, touching, and smelling the country that he must decide if he wants to act as leader of the opposition to Illa and, above all, if he wants to run for the presidency again, or if Catalonia and the memory he has left behind have changed so much that he will not be able to turn the polls around.Meanwhile, this weekend Sánchez, Feijóo and Abascal have been through Catalonia. Sánchez to say that now everything is going much better thanks to Salvador Illa, Abascal to tell us that the problem is Islam and Feijóo to consider that we are material for a psychiatrist. Feijóo: “And I do not want a Catalonia trapped in a permanent loop, sitting on a psychiatrist's couch asking itself what it is. No, I do want to turn the page. I want you Catalans not to be the ones who pay the most taxes in Spain and the ones who receive the worst services. You cannot have a Rodalies that is sometimes scary and other times shameful. You cannot have the worst education in Spain, along with Ceuta and Melilla. You cannot have the highest crime rates. And you cannot accept that your industry is dismantled, whether it be called Seat, Ascó or Valdebeos. We will maintain the Catalan industry above all else”.Look, Mr. Feijóo, part of our financial problems come from the premeditated asphyxiation of which your party is one of the historic co-responsible parties. Asphyxiation that extends to the trains, for example: 34 years after the first AVE (Madrid-Seville), the Mediterranean corridor is still unfinished. And for you to suggest that we have a mental disorder that needs a psychiatrist is a very crude way of belittling the history of Catalonia and Spain. It’s a good thing you came to ask for our vote.Good morning.

With two days left until the official arrival of astronomical autumn, we still have to talk about temperatures more typical of summer than of these dates. Minimum temperatures have recorded the typical drop in recent days due to the shortening of daily daylight hours, with a significantly cooler environment at night and in the early morning, especially inland and in the Pyrenees. Maximum temperatures, on the other hand, continue to rise. Yesterday they climbed back above 33 ºC in the interior of the Ebro and in the Priorat. And this Monday there will be a heat peak, with many maximums of 30 to 35 ºC throughout the country. Although the mercury will fall back a little on Tuesday, temperatures will remain above average throughout the week, along with anticyclonic calm.

Sánchez says that “the Catalonia of 2026 resembles much more the one that the Catalans have always wanted.” Is there a single Catalan who wants a Rodalies service that makes their life impossible, courtesy of the disastrous state duo Renfe-Adif? Not to mention the AP-7 and, in general, the shameless percentage of non-compliance with the State investments budgeted for our country. It is one thing to come and hold rallies with rose-tinted arguments, and quite another to ignore the reality that tears down the speeches.The same thing happens to Feijóo. When he states that he wants Catalonia to lead “the reconstruction of Spain”, I wonder if he knows that 34 years after the first Madrid-Seville high-speed train, the Mediterranean corridor is still unfinished, or if he has ever heard of the fiscal deficit.Of course Feijóo doesn't care, because with the mentality of the little lords and owners of Spain that characterizes the PP, he doesn't even realize how insulting it is to hear him say, "I don't want a Catalonia in a permanent loop, sitting on a psychiatrist's couch, wondering what it is or what it is not."Treating Catalonia as if it had a mental disorder is not exactly a display of finesse. Every time it votes, Catalonia expresses that this supervised and underfunded autonomy falls short. Reducing the history of Spain and Catalonia to a transient mental alienation is of a very thick caliber, only suitable for colonial mentalities. If Feijóo is bothered by the question of what Catalonia is or is not, he has it very simple: let him ask directly and commit to respecting the result.

In 1945, Franco traveled to the future. It was the most decisive journey of the dictatorship. The master of it all landed in Extremadura. There was a promise: to redeem the poorest land in Spain. Franco changed the future, but also the past.

During this weekend and the coming days the weather will be identical, with some exceptions. Temperatures have normalized and only towards Monday will they be able to rise a little in the West. Apart from sun, some morning fog and some thin clouds, the arrival of weak north and northwest winds will stand out, but little else.

The Minister of Business and Labour, Miquel Sàmper, has announced the creation of a second office for Acció, the agency that works for the growth of Catalan companies, in India. This will be located in the country's capital, New Delhi, and is expected to be operational before the end of 2026. Until now, Acció had a single office in India located in Mumbai. With this announcement, the minister begins an institutional trip to New Delhi and Mumbai to increase opportunities and strengthen trade relations between Catalonia and the Asian country.

Yesterday, remnants of instability were still seen in some sectors of the territory. In the morning, some downpours falling over the sea brushed the coast of Barcelona and left some local showers and, even, some isolated flooding in the seaside neighborhoods of the Catalan capital itself, where in a few minutes more than 10 or 15 l/m² accumulated. They were very local and anecdotal phenomena that ended up clearing away completely.