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If new elections were to be called in Catalonia today, the winner would be governing cross-party pro-independence ‘Junts Pel Sí’, which would still have between 60 and 62 seats in the 135-seat Parliament. Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, which is currently the main party in the opposition with 25 MPs would get between 15 and 21 seats. The highest increase according to a poll released this Friday would be for alternative left alliance ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ (CSQP) which would get 19-20 MPs compared to the 11 seats it currently has in the Chamber. On the other hand, radical left pro-independence CUP would drop from 10 seats to 6-8. Regarding pro-independence support amongst Catalans, the poll shows a return to the tie situation which has been the most common result of the polls. Thus, 44.9% of Catalans would support independence, while 45.1% would vote against it.

The Catalan Government and the Catalan Parliament gathered this Saturday evening in an institutional ceremony to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day. This year, the commemoration paid tribute to major migrations and claimed Catalonia as a welcoming land throughout history. The ceremony took place for the first time at the Born Cultural Centre and not on ‘Plaça Sant Jaume’, the square where Barcelona’s Town Hall and Palau de la Generalitat, the Catalan Government headquarters, are located. Some former presidents of Catalonia, such as Artur Mas and José Montilla, also took part in the event, as did most of the political parties in the Catalan Chamber. The Conservative People’s Party (PP) andSpanish Unionist Ciutadans refused to attend.

The possibility that two Francoist sculptures may be displayed in Barcelona’s city centre as part of a temporary exhibition has unleashed controversy in the Catalan capital. ‘Franco-Victory-Republic: impunity and urban space’ aims to “force society to think about what Franco’s dictatorship represented” and the “impunity” this period has had “during Spain’s democracy”, explained Barcelona’s deputy mayor, Gerardo Pisarello. However, taking the exhibition to the streets by displaying the Francoist sculpture ‘Victoria’, and an equestrian sculpture of Franco himself, hasn’t gone down well with some political forces and associations in Catalonia. “In this country the executioners were not judged and the victims were not properly buried” stated ERC’s President in Barcelona’s City Hall, Alfred Bosch, adding that he considers the wounds that Franco’s dictatorship provoked not yet healed. 

Barcelona’s City Hall has found a legal stratagem for not reopening the Immigrant Detention Centre (CIE), which closed in October for renovation works. The CIE, located in Barcelona’s industrial ‘Zona Franca’ area, didn’t have the correct activity licence nor comply with fire regulations and thus the Catalan capital called for the Spanish Ministry for Affairs, the body responsible for the centre, to cease the CIE’s activity. However, the Delegation of the Spanish Government to Catalonia has announced in a communiqué the reopening of the CIE once the works are done and that the judicial services will appeal Barcelona City Hall’s decision. Before hearing about the reopening notice, Barcelona’s deputy mayor, Jaume Asens, stated that if the Ministry refuses the order and reopens the CIE “coercive measures” such as fines or “sealing off the centre” will have to be put in place.

The Recreational and Tourist Centre of Vila-seca and Salou, the project which was originally named ‘BCN World’, will start to be built in summer 2017. The resort will be located between these two villages – Vila-seca and Salou – on the Costa Daurada, near PortAventura theme park. After numerous reorganisations and changes in the legislation, the project’s hotel surface area will decrease by 29.2% in comparison with the urban plan approved in 2015. The surface area designated for gambling and amusement activities will ultimately be 30,000 m² instead of 60,000 m². The surface area for commercial use and that designated for theatres and congresses has been kept the same. Thus, the total surface area of the project will be 750,000 m² rather than 1,000,000m². The project is expected to receive €2,500 million in private investment and will generate 10,000 jobs when fully operational.

The leading e-commerce company plans to generate 1,500 jobs within three years of the opening of its new logistics centre, expected by autumn 2017. Amazon’s new infrastructure, which will have a surface area equivalent to that of 8 football pitches, will be located in El Prat de Llobregat, the same village where Barcelona El Prat airport is located, a municipality 10 kilometres away from Barcelona. The decision to expand its operations in the region is “not casual”, stated Amazon Spain Fulfilment’s Director of Operations, Fred Pattje and emphasised different assets besides El Prat airport such as Barcelona’s Port and “the economic sectors around the Llobregat delta”.

The initiative will set up Catalonia as a point of reference in Europe regarding this kind of medicine. The agreement between the Catalan government and a consortium led by the Beijing government also includes actions in the fields of higher education, research, health and culture. For example, an official master’s degree in Chinese traditional medicine will be taught in collaboration with two Catalan universities, the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), and alongside with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. The project has been promoted by the Catalan Ministry for Business and Knowledge, through the area which focuses on attracting foreign investment, ACCIÓ – Catalonia Trade & Investment, and the Secretary for Universities and Research.

The Catalan capital will host the first Amazon express delivery centre in Europe. Similar to New York’s recently opened Amazon ‘Prime Now’ delivery centre, Barcelona will have a centre to attend to customers’ demands quickerand deliver products on the same day. Amazon will establish this centre at 89 Rosselló Street, in Barcelona city. The building was previously the headquarters of the Editorial Gustavo Gili publishing house and its huge basement makes it an appropriate choice considering Amazon’s activities. This operation is to complement the creation of Amazon’s biggest logistics centre in the South of Europe, which will be built in El Prat de Llobregat, close to Barcelona El Prat Airport. 

‘Fotografia a Catalunya’ compiles Catalonia’s photographic patrimony into one website. This initiative is the first of the measures set out in the Photography National Plan, approved in 2014. “This website starts to make Catalonia’s photographic patrimony visible” stated current Catalan Minister for Culture, Ferran Mascarell, and added that by launching this website “a lifelong pending issue has been sorted out”. There are 1,600 pictures from 497 different photographers already available which summarise outstanding collections from the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and Barcelona’s Photographic Archive, amongst many others, and the aim is to extend the offering to 15,000 by the end of next year. Catalonia’s photographic patrimony includes more than 35 million pictures, kept in more than 323 public archives, museums and other centres all over the territory.

Barcelona will continue to host each year the world's main event of the mobile phone-related industries until at least 2023, it has been confirmed by the company organising the Mobile World Congress, GSMA, on Tuesday through a press release. “We are very pleased to confirm that Barcelona will continue to serve as the Mobile World Capital and home of the Mobile World Congress for the next eight years”, stated the CEO of GSMA, John Hoffman. The Catalan capital has been uninterruptedly hosting this annual event since 2006 and has been declared the Mobile World Capital, as the project goes beyond the congress and involves the development of a business environment focused on this type of industry at international level. The current contract was due to end in 2018 and a few months ago Barcelona officially told GSMA it was willing to continue hosting the event until 2023.

Researchers at the Hospital Germans Trias in Badalona (Greater Barcelona) have taken an important step toward creating a vaccine for Type 1 diabetes, which currently has no cure. The discovery, published in the scientific journal 'Plos One', consists of the preparation of nanoparticles in the laboratory that, once introduced into the body, slow down the destruction of beta cells (whose primary function is to store and release insulin). With Type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks these insulin-producing cells located in the pancreas and destroys them. Currently, to combat the disease, patients must take insulin injections. In recent years, Catalonia has become a global hub for biomedical investigation, developing cutting-edge research initiatives and participating in leading international projects. With just 0.1% of the world’s population, Catalonia accounts for nearly 1% of global scientific production and attracts 2.2% of European competitive funds and 3.5% of European Research Council (ERC) grants.

The University of Barcelona (UB) has begun the first phase of its Humanities and Social Sciences Park in the 22@ business and technological district. The opening ceremony took place in Can Jaumandreu, one of the buildings that will hold the research park, along with Can Ricart. Both of these buildings used to be factories built in the late 19^th and early 20^th century in what was once the industrial centre of Barcelona, known as 'the Catalan Manchester'. This new research park is the latest addition to the 22@ district, which over the past 15 years has become a hub for business and technology in Barcelona. The park represents an effort by the UB to amplify its research in the humanities and social sciences and is a complement to the Barcelona Scientific Park, which opened in 1997.

Catalans are holding their municipal elections on Sunday, while the elections to the Catalan Parliament are to be held in September, as opposed to other parts of Spain, where they are voting for their regional parliaments on Sunday. These municipal elections come after 7 years of economic crisis and also with very uncertain political horizons. Two debates have dominated the campaign: Catalonia’s independence and the rise of new or secondary parties that promise to change the current model. For many people in Catalonia, Sunday’s elections will be a first stage of the ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence that is going to take place with the Catalan elections on 27 September. It is also the opportunity to support changing the current political, economic and social model, with the rise of alternative left coalitions. Furthermore, majorities and town halls go through significant changes, particularly in Barcelona and the cities of its Metropolitan Area, where there are no clear winners forecast and surprises are likely to happen.

A major step forward in Catalonia's public research on technology has been made this month, with the official establishing of Eurecat on 1 May. The new integrated hub is a result of the merger of 5 advanced Catalan technology centres in the first phase. Last Wednesday, it incorporated a further 13 companies onto its Board. Eurecat is aimed at boosting technology research and its business applicability, particularly among private SMEs, which represent most of Catalonia's economy. Conceived as an engine for key technologies, it is a tool for implementing the Strategy for the Smart Specialisation of Catalonia (RIS3CAT). The latter was drafted by the Catalan Government following the EU Commission's decision to make 'smart specialisation' a prerequisite for attracting EU funds during the period 2014-2020. By the end of 2020, the centre is expected to have attracted funding from the EC's Horizon 2020 framework and the RIS3 to the tune of €200m.

The 2015 QS World University Rankings by Subject has ranked Barcelona’s Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) 22^nd in the world in the field of Architecture and 35^th in Civil and Structural Engineering. According to the same prestigious ranking, the University of Barcelona (UB) performs well too, ranking as one of the top 50 globally in Philosophy and among the top 200 in 27 of the 36 subject areas. Moreover, The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 Rankings 2015 lists three Catalan universities - Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona; the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB); and Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona– among the top 100 universities worldwide under 50 years old.