Reporting on local politics is not central to the mission of our Agency, but certain extraordinary cases with a European dimension may call for an exception to be made. On 25 September, the former Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, announced that he was to run for mayor in a major Spanish city: Barcelona; which is, moreover, the capital of a region that has been the talk of the EU in recent times, Catalonia. Particular attention will be paid to the municipal elections to be held there on...