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For a few hours this Friday, Barcelona experienced one of its greatest days of chaos ever witnessed at El Prat airport, with queues of up to two hours to pass through security control, and with passengers having difficulty even accessing the terminal itself, as the queues trailed outside and on to the street. None of this happened by coincidence. Nothing technical had struck the airport, nor a natural cause or disaster. Those responsible have names and surnames: the company Aena, still more public than private, and as indicated on the company's own website, the world's No.1 airport operator in numbers of passengers.

Well, the only problem that Aena has today is at El Prat airport, and the only problem with one of the security companies that it works with, Eulen, is at El Prat. Eulen is not a small company since it operates in more than 20 airports, but in no other airport - that's right, in no other airport - does it have any labour disputes at all. Neither is it a company without political contacts, since the sister of the president of the Xunta of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is the representative in Galicia — there's even been controversy in some of the awards of the Xunta.

Why Barcelona and why now? It is obvious that the conflict has been left to rot between Eulen and its workforce. But Aena has known that for weeks and should have intervened. Also the Ministry of Fomento (Public Works and Transport), always ready and diligent when it comes to promising new investments in infrastructures, or a photo opportunity of minor works. In case the Ministry is unaware, Barcelona airport is an infrastructure of the State and of the citizens that use it, especially Catalans, but in the current globalization, those from any place in the world did not deserve to have experienced such chaos on Friday.

Nor do they deserve the information blackout on behalf of the Spanish government. Nor the silence from Barcelona City Council, nor from those at town hall who are not already on vacation. Neither is it a matter of trying to make others look responsible, since the Catalan government has its hands and feet tied and can only attempt to intervene in the labour issue. Nor the silence from the Public Prosecutor's Office when finding out if anyone has done anything illegal in allowing the chaos to happen, with the subsequent ridicule that it means for the image of Barcelona. Because it does damage the city and appears in the media worldwide. But perhaps that's what this is all about. Because coincidences do not exist.