About the airport

In the memory of most people, and especially that of official chroniclers (that is: almost everyone), the Champions League that Barça won against the London team Arsenal in 2006 was basically due to a superstar named Ronaldinho. The statistical reality, proven by facts, is that Eto'o, Valdés, and Puyol were much more decisive that season.

For the official memory, the great cut suffered by the proposed reform of the Statute of Catalonia came from the Constitutional Court, but if we base history on verifiable facts, it can be observed that the great shaving was done in the Cortes and in the final pact between Rodríguez Zapatero and Artur Mas, president of Spain and leader of the opposition in the Parliament of Catalonia, respectively.

One thing is reality and another is what official chroniclers and spokesmen keep repeating in the media, including networks, with a hammer blow and one after another, periodically and uncritically.

In the case of the airport, something similar happens. When the self-proclaimed leading figures and saviors of the country gathered in the IESE auditorium on March 22, 2007, to demand control of Barcelona Airport by the Catalan administrations and more investment, it was already too late. It was a useless act that the regime's press here and there wanted to portray as a warning from Catalan entrepreneurs to Madrid's centralism. Exactly the opposite of what was actually intended. Because most of the promoters, not all, obviously, of the event at the business school, stood aside when the Parliament and the Catalan parties were negotiating the reform of the statute, when the transfer of airports to the Generalitat was possible. In fact, an agreement was reached in the constitutional commission of the congress during the negotiation. An agreement that, after a revolt of high-ranking state officials led by Minister Magdalena Álvarez ---"rather dead than crooked," she said---, forced Rodríguez Zapatero to make it disappear from the text and Artur Mas to accept it.

Many of the leading figures at the IESE event not only stood aside as I said before, but some, many, even fought against the proposed reform of the statute. According to them, the political noise caused by the debate was excessive and harmed the economy.

Paradoxically, months after the statutory capitulation by the Catalan ruling class, they reappeared at the business school event. What were they trying to achieve? To demonstrate that the Parliament and the Catalan parties were useless and that all versions of political Catalanism and the left were incapable of achieving anything from the state. In contrast, they could. The result was also a failure because no one paid attention to them. The official, mainstream press did not focus on it that way; quite the opposite, the display of muscle by businessmen and executives of large Ibex companies based in Barcelona was seen as a successful claim. As we have already said, the results not only tended to zero, but the state shielded itself for the future and privatized a part of the airport management company, Aena.

Now, the leading figures have done it again. And this time they have gone to the competition, to Esade, taking advantage of Aena's proposal for the expansion of the Airport and the rejection by the Barcelona City Council. The same official press here (the one there is too busy with pardons) points out that this affirmative act by employers' associations and senior executives of Ibex companies based in Madrid is a warning against the Government of Catalonia and a total amendment to the policy of recent years. Now, however, the transfer of the airport is no longer requested, and the fact of turning Barcelona into a hub for transcontinental flights is written in lowercase, but rather that Aena be given free rein to expand the airport and, incidentally, the new Government of Catalonia is pointed at with an index finger worthy of the best Castilian inquisition.

We will not enter into the debate airport yes, airport no. If it were done well, which I doubt, it would be an important boost to turn it into a real hub. Provided that the Spanish State would agree to allow intercontinental flights in Barcelona, ​​since until now it has prioritized Madrid. Hence the crying baby. With one hand, Aena and the State allowed Ryanair to settle in Barcelona to the detriment of Reus and Girona, and with the other, they concentrate all transoceanic activity in Madrid. Another day we will delve deeper.

Today I only want to point out how we have allowed ourselves to be deceived by some narratives about the events and controversies of recent years. And to confirm the failure of the Catalan economic ruling class, which has even less weight in the state capital than Catalan politics itself. History is written this way, with the ink of official truths and narratives, and the acts of business schools will go down in the annals as acts of reaffirmation by businessmen. A reaffirmation that no one with power in this matter, that is, the state bodies, listens to.

Despite the exceptions, which exist, the sole objective of some of these leaderships is almost always to serve the interests of the state. Interests that allow, from time to time, to put some crumbs into the so-called BOE capitalism. Even if this goes against the economic interests of the majority of businessmen or strategic interests of Catalonia. We could talk here about the role of some in the failed takeover bids of Gas Natural, first towards Iberdrola and then towards Endesa. Or the denunciation of the delinquency of large corporations that suffocate the rest of the companies and that Pimec has had to fight alone. The case of the airport is an example of how too often what is sculpted in collective memory has little to do with the damned reality.