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Civil Guard takes control at El Prat

Agents begin to manage security controls in Barcelona airport and will do so on a larger scale from Monday

Some 360 Civil Guard agents are to be deployed at Barcelona airport to end the queues caused by the security employees’ industrial action, with the head of the agency only awaiting the order to execute the measure, expected to come today or tomorrow. The presence of Civil Guard agents in the security area has already increased in recent days but it will not be until Monday that they are deployed in full, the Spanish Minister of Public Works, Íñigo De la Serna, explained in Barcelona yesterday. Monday is scheduled as the first day of a full and indefinite strike by security workers.

De la Serna, the political figure in charge of Barcelona airport, yesterday morning chaired what he himself defined as a crisis meeting, which met as many as three times. The first was with representatives of several State administrations, then with a delegation of advisers from the Generalitat and, finally, with the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau.

The first meeting led to the decisions to mobilise the Civil Guard and study the possibility of resolving the union conflict by forced compliance, and the other two were to inform the Catalan administrations of these two decisions.

Regarding the presence of the Civil Guard at El Prat, the Minister was careful to state that the intention was not to replace the security employees, who will have to continue doing their job in compliance with the minimum services established by law, but for reasons of “security and public order.” De la Serna reiterated several times that what is at stake is a matter of security and that is why the State has responded with such force.

The security workers must also continue to work because Civil Guard agents do not have the requisite training to take over their jobs.

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