Complex projective plane has no nontrivial covering quotient

The Complex projective plane is simply connected. If it were the total space of a covering of degree at least two, it would be the universal cover and have a nonidentity deck transformation. Such a transformation acts by $u\mapsto \pm u$ on $H^{\ast }({\mathbb{CP}}^2)=\mathbb{Z}[u]/(u^3)$, giving Lefschetz number 1 or 3. It therefore has a fixed point, impossible for a nonidentity deck transformation.