Fighting the pandemic with mass vaccination - 220 million doses administered - and strong Keynesian economic stimuli. More taxes on the rich as a way to make equality of opportunity more real. Injection of public investment for infrastructure and creation of green economy jobs. Commitment to education from childhood to university, with direct aid to families. All this, which is no small thing, on the inside. And on the outside, multilateralism, the fight against climate change and the defence of human rights and democracy in the face of China's rise and the global autocratic danger it represents.

In main streets such as Carrer Ferran in Barcelona's Barri Gòtic, the pandemic has left a swathe of closed commercial premises, a situation repeated across the most touristic areas of the city, such as La Rambla. According to data from the main real estate websites collected by the City Council, there are now 5,323 closed premises in the city - 1.5 million square meters of wasted floor space - and the problem is especially prominent in Ciutat Vella and the Eixample - 40% of shops have closed in the center - while areas with more neighbourhood businesses have weathered the crisis better. With the dual aim of contributing to economic recovery and improving the quality of life in the city - with the ground floors as guarantors of safety and the image of vitality of the neighbourhoods -, the government of Ada Colau announced today that, in accordance with the proposal of ERC for the budget agreement, will allocate €16m to buy and rehabilitate ground floor premises that are in disuse to create a portfolio of city-owned ground floors and influence the type of activity in each area.

The way out of the economic crisis does not only depend on the success of vaccination against covid-19. There are other factors to take into account, the main but not only one being European aid. This Wednesday the State has announced a new aid package of €11bn aimed in particular at the hospitality industry, tourism, small businesses and SMEs and the self-employed. Welcome, but let's see how fast they are distributed and where they end up. For starters, it has not yet been clarified whether a part will be direct aid, a relevant detail. Unlike other countries, Spain so far has not given any: it has chosen to reduce some taxes and contributions, offer moratoriums, give guarantees and, above all, assume the cost of furlough. A set of measures that have barely stopped the blow. In fact, according to the European Central Bank Spain has devoted a smaller percentage of GDP (1.3%) to combat the economic crisis with direct aid than any other eurozone country.

There are a number of reasons not to go to the polls. In fact, there are potentially as many reasons to be discouraged as there are voters called to the ballots. For the generations that have lived in a democracy, voting is a matter of fact, a routine that rivals the routines of a pandemic Sunday. What if the fear of contagion, what if laziness, what if the rain, what if the aperitif? What if disillusionment and weariness with political representatives overwhelmed by reality and with worn-out prestige. In fact, it is nothing new, as JFK said, that mothers want their children to grow up to be presidents, but do not want them to become politicians in the process.