The demonstration against the Altri macrocellulose project in Palas de Rei (Lugo) was the main news on Sunday in Galicia. Also for TVG, which dedicated the opening of its two news programs to it – although avoiding any image that could show its massive dimension – and five minutes in the development. However, when analyzing what that time was dedicated to, it is found that more was invested in criticizing the march and defending the industrial project than in recounting what happened. With the incorporation of the PP’s position, the Telexornal The nightclub even dedicated a third more of its minutes to the detractors than to the protagonists of a mobilization that has already been compared to that of you umbrellaswhich after the accident Prestige led to the birth of the Never Again Platform. Since then, no other civic event had managed to overflow the Praza do Obradoiro in Santiago like this one did, with 100,000 people according to the organization and 40,000 for the local police. Despite this monitoring, or perhaps because of it, the Galician public media have dedicated themselves to demonstrating how wrong the thesis of the conveners were.
“Tomorrow on TVG they will say that there was a historic influx of pilgrims to the twelve o’clock mass,” the writer and musician Lois Pérez ironically said from the stage of the mobilization. Meanwhile, a column of people entered a crowded square asking, loudly, where the regional television was. TVG was in the Obradoiro, but also – as could be seen in its news – in many other places to counteract the image on Sunday.
In an example of message control, the two editions of the Telexornalthe one at noon and the one at night, gave almost exact information, word for word, about the demonstration and its reactions. The only difference, always in favor of the project’s defenders, was in the afternoon paper, which added an opinion that had not yet reached the editorial office at lunchtime: that of the number two of the Galician PP, Paula Prado. But let’s go in parts.
The two news programs opened the same. Behind the header, shot of the presenter that started like this: “Demonstration in Santiago against the Altri company project in Palas de Rei. A protest called by the Ulloa Viva and En Defensa da Ría de Arousa platforms. The organizers assure that the company will reduce natural wealth and that it will be polluting. Political parties, environmental organizations and unions were present at the demonstration. CCOO and UGT did not attend.” The images used to cover the text—the queues—chose close-up shots of the march’s route through the streets of Compostela. Nothing that showed the real dimension of the protest.
In addition to this picturesque fact, the intro already included a preview of the reactions that awaited the viewer: “The Portuguese company Altri regrets that society has a negative perception of the project and emphasizes that it was designed with strict criteria of sustainability and respect for the environment.” environment in accordance with European regulations. A project that according to the company would generate 500 direct jobs in the factory and 3,700 indirect ones.”
Beyond the differences in rhythm of both presenters, watching the two intros in a row is as impressive as watching two identical twins. If you are curious, you can do it here and here. Only a brave “company” resonates where hours before “company” was said to break a uniformity that gives a new meaning to the concept of talking head. But the thing doesn’t stop there. The situation is repeated after the headline summary:
“Massive demonstration in Santiago against the factory that Altri wants to install in Palas de Rei. The march has the support of numerous social and union groups and is called by the Ulloa Viva Platform and the Platform in Defense of Ría de Arousa.” That the piece that follows is the same – something, yes, very common in weekend news – is the least that can be expected. In it, in addition to the spokespersons for both platforms, the leader of the BNG, Ana Pontón, and the number two of the PSdeG in the Galician Parliament, Lara Méndez, are also given a voice, since her general secretary, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, did not attend. on the march. Only at the end of the information do we finally see the Obradoiro packed. In total, for this section, 2:16 at noon and 2:09 at night.
The counterpoint
After a curtain come the reactions. In some queues at the farm where it hopes to raise its macrocellulose, we hear the reading—in full!—of the statement sent by Altri on Sunday morning: that the company “says it regrets that a part of society has a negative perception of the GAMA Project . They emphasize that it was designed with the highest criteria of sustainability and respect for the environment, set by European regulations, they say. In this sense, Altri says that the European Commission has not recorded any evidence of non-compliance with the regulations applicable to the project, which in turn is aligned with the Draghi report that is committed to boosting the productivity of the industry and the competitiveness of European companies. under the prism of clean technologies and decarbonization. Altri insists that it will continue explaining the project to all those entities and groups that wish to be informed as we have been doing until now.” The only thing that is not in the statement is the information that we already heard in the presentation of the news and that is pure documentation, of course, nothing coincidental: that, “according to the company”, the project “would generate 500 direct jobs and 3,700 indirect jobs” .
An argument that, at the San Marcos headquarters, they understood had to be reinforced. TVG sends a team to speak with Sara Vale Pena, president of the North Coast Foresters Association, to evaluate the GAMA Project, in the words of the presenter, “from its economic contribution to the GDP and the contribution to decarbonization.” After it, one more economic opinion, that of the president of the employers’ association. Juan Manuel Vieites spoke of “the good health of the business fabric” although “work is being done to be more competitive and meet greater objectives.” Just as Vale Pena’s reaction was totally gratuitous, in the Telexornal night, the second time, they saw fit to justify Vieites’ presence: he had been interviewed in the morning two days because the confederation of businessmen “has to choose a new leader.”
In that same space we find the great news: the emergence of the general secretary of the popular Galicians. “The PPdeG criticizes the BNG, which it considers the organizer of this demonstration,” says the presenter. “Paula Prado accuses the nationalists of not wanting progress in Galicia. “It ensures that the Xunta is not going to allow an installation that does not comply with environmental regulations.” “They do not want the progress of Galicia,” Prado began, “they do not want progress, they do not want industry, they do not want employment and we will continue working so that there is industry, there is employment, always respecting the environment because without employment, without industry, no “There is a future.” With Prado’s intervention, the 2:24 dedicated to this section at noon reached three minutes at night. If we stick to the times, it seems that TVG was clear that its role was not to recount a historic mobilization, but to explain to the tens of thousands of protesters why they should have stayed home.
The radio: the day after
Radio Galega —which at the time did not find a place for another large mobilization against Altri, which displaced more than 20,000 people to Palas de Rei— did not have news on Sunday at two in the afternoon due to sports programming, as well that he saved the chest do for this Monday. At eight, in the prime time of the Galicia by Dianteafter almost ten minutes about Aldama, Koldo and Begoña Gómez, the “judicial way of the cross, the nightmare before Christmas” of the PSOE to which Moncloa and Ferraz respond with a “victimist” speech, the time comes to talk about the demonstration.
Reviewing the covers, the presenter gives way to the spokesperson for Ulloa Viva, Pontón and Méndez and reads – shorter than on TV – the company’s statement. Afterwards, Paula Prado “focuses on the fact that the demonstration was promoted by a BNG installed in the past.”
Around 8:15 comes the moment when the head of news, Alberto Varela, offers “the keys to the day.” Varela, who at the time harshly criticized the extensive study by the Consello da Cultura Galega against the project, began by considering “it is important to clarify some things”: that if the protesters speak of “macrocellulose” it is because this pulp is necessary for the manufacture of the lyocell textile fiber. “Is there a factory of this type in Europe?” he asks rhetorically before telling us that there is: one, in Austria, from the Lenzing group, which is “European Environment Award and Energy Global Award”. Varela raises another question, less rhetorical: “Yesterday we saw many people at the anti-Altri demonstration, but the question is whether Galician society is against it.” To try to demonstrate that this is not the case, he provides the result in Palas de Rei in the European elections in May: 60% of votes for the PP, 18% for the PSOE, 14% for the BNG. According to the general director of the CRTVG, Alfonso Sánchez Izquierdo, Varela’s approach is not to give his opinion, but rather to “give context.”
The opinion comes next from the mouth of the economist Venancio Salcines. “I see this demonstration as one more step in a strategy of attack on the industrial policy that is being carried out in Galicia.” “Industrial policy cannot be done in the street, it has to be done in Parliament,” he continues to explain that there is a regulatory framework and binding technical reports before concluding. “What we cannot do is try to mark politics on the street by trying to generate movements that do not make much sense.” Three weeks ago, the foundation that bears his name awarded another pulp, Ence, for “its commitment to innovation, sustainability and energy transition.”
If on Monday after the Palas demonstration, which had no place in the news, the protagonist of the interview time in the Galicia by Diante He was an Altri manager, this time he went one step further. The person who traveled to the San Marcos study was the Minister of the Environment, Ángeles Vázquez. At 8:30 o’clock, instead of the usual gathering, the listeners found themselves twenty minutes of disqualification of the protesters—”to stop manipulating the information”—and of defense of the project and the position of the Xunta… and a development not at all coincidental: that the first three reports issued by the administration, all of them from his department, are favorable to the installation of the factory.
The interview with Vázquez was close to 20 minutes. The usual Monday talk shows – with the usual quota of the new season: three analysts who are favorable to the PP compared to one who is not – barely had a quarter of an hour to analyze the great news issue of the weekend in Galicia. When the debate heated up, the presenter settled the discussion to return to what was really, for him, the issue of the day: Aldama’s statement in the Supreme Court. The first intervention, to set the agenda and the framework, that of the director of The DebateBieito Rubido. In his recorded column with which the section usually opens – provided, of course, that there is no minister waiting – no one was left: neither the achiever, nor Koldo nor the wife of the President of the Government to whom, who knows if on purpose or because of a subconscious play, he called Begoña Sánchez. But, as in the song, the important thing is that, once again, they were already talking about Madrid.
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