The first surprised were the calls themselves. They knew that the sea in the background existed, and that it overflowed the region of A Ulloa (Lugo), but they did not imagine how far the tide could reach. A crowd, about 20,000 people, flooded Palas de Rei, a small town of just 1,000 inhabitants and head of the municipality of 3,200 where Altri intends to install its macrocellulose. Not even all those who intended to attend the demonstration that Sunday, May 26, 2024, could do so, traffic collapsed the national roads that led to the place and many people did not arrive. “Dende A Ulloa ties ría, terra, auga and air are life. Altri non, ”said the banner that was in charge of the demonstration, historical in the opinion of own and strangers. It was the first of a series of concurridized and plural protests that the Xunta de Galicia has ignored, when not directly despised. It is ratified by the Autonomous Environmental Aval, published on March 14 in the Official Gazette of Galicia.
To comment on the massive march of Palas de Rei, President Alfonso Rueda pulled his particular response manual. He respected it, he said, because she was peaceful. But, he added the next day, “some of the things that were said there [en la manifestación] They are not like that. Some statements today began to be denied by the company. ” He referred to toxins figures and chlorine use. The Galician government has embarked on the unconditional support of the project and, on numerous occasions, has accused those who issue criticism or even doubts about “being politicized” or under the orders of the BNG. The nationalist training has supported all the mobilizations contrary to Altri. They have also made numerous positions of the PSDEG – on Palas de Rei were the mayors and socialist councilors of the area, for example – although their position at the Galician level is more ambiguous.
The real engine behind the protests has so far been the Ulloa Viva platform, which brings together the neighborhood response to the project and has also had the help of unions (CIG, CUT) or environmental organizations (Greenpeace, Adega, platform in defense da ría). Their actions have covered all the modalities, of talks and debates with experts in the councils affected to an agroecological products market produced in them, of symbolic acts to mass manifestations. Greenpeace even achieved, in June of last year, a rather unusual image: environmentalists and sailors of the Aruous estuary – of Bateeiros ships, mostly – sailing together to show his disagreement against Altri’s plans and the environmental policy of the Xunta. This March 22, the Da Ría Defense Platform, Ulloa Viva and the Mar sector – Marisqueo Groups on foot, among them – call a new “by land and sea” march against “threats” like the one that would be, in his opinion, the macrocellulose.
The intention of the Portuguese multinational that promotes it – with Greenalia, of Galician capital, as a minor partner – is to install the plant on a farm farm. The Xunta has already conveniently reduced its environmental protection. The factory would capture the water of the Ulla river, not many kilometers from its birth. This river channel is the main source of the Ría de Arousa, whose seafood and fishing wealth is among the largest in Europe. Sea workers fear the affectation that Altri could cause in the waters and are being an active part of the protests.
Like the human chain that on June 30 surrounded San Caetano, in Santiago de Compostela, the headquarters of the Galician government. Thousands of people participated, once again, to the shout of “Altri Non.” The organizers, this time Ulloa Viva and the Da Ría Defense Platform, requested dialogue to the Executive of Alfonso Rueda. Vainly. Nor did they get it after another historic Sunday, on December 15. The Praza do Obradoiro of Santiago de Compostela was filled and emptied several times with protesters contrary to the idea of a pastel in the geographical heart of Galicia. Rueda did not want to dialogue with the convening organizations, but the company, Altri, did respond to the march in the present time: people still crowded the old town of the city when it spread a press release in which it regretted “that a part of the Galician society has a negative perception of the range of the range of the project [así se llama en la documentación administrativa” e insistía en que respetará el medio ambiente y la legislación.
Alfonso Rueda no se movió. Permanentemente escudado detrás de los técnicos de su gobierno, admitió al día siguiente cierta preocupación por el rechazo social, pero lo achacó al BNG y a la desinformación. “Respeto a los manifestantes en general”, adujo, y después procedió a dividirlos en dos categorías, los de “buena fe, con más o menos información” y los que acudieron por “planteamientos políticos”. Todo el mundo hace política en Galicia excepto el gabinete que él mismo preside, con esa máxima ya se conducía su antecesor, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, para encajar las críticas. Rueda lo ha llevado más allá, al cargar incluso contra el Consello da Cultura Galega, organismo autónomo del Gobierno gallego, cuya creación y función de asesoramiento recoge el propio Estatuto de Autonomía vigente.
El Consello da Cultura publicó el pasado un detallado documento de 181 páginas, firmado por una decena de científicos y expertos, cuyas concusiones eran duras: si la macrocelulosa se construye, provocará “una grave fractura en el territorio”. El texto cuestionaba las cifras de empleo, del consumo de eucalipto o sus efectos sobre la cultura y el paisaje. En un gesto sin precedentes, Alfonso Rueda criticó a la institución que había promovido el informe aunque, al mismo tiempo, admitió que no lo había leído. Tampoco tuvieron mucho tiempo para leerlo los dos eurodiputados del PP gallego que, solo unas horas después de difundido, arremetieron con el mismo y sus autores, a los que acusaron –sin argumentarlo– de “nula independencia”, de estar en “la órbita del BNG” o de ser apenas “supuestos especialistas”. Entre los autores figuraban profesores universitarios, catedráticos o investigadores, entre ellos Sonia Villapol, profesora de neurociencia en Weill Cornell Medical College de Nueva York.
Not to the street, not the allegations
If the busy demonstrations barely affect the position of the Xunta de Galicia, neither did the thousands of administrative allegations to the project. Still this Friday the Minister of Environment, Ángeles Vázquez, estimated at 27,100. The president had already disqualified them months ago, defining it as “an orchestrated campaign” and even questioning the freedom of people when signing them. “I don’t get signed freely, what sure,” he said then. The Ulloa Viva platform and environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Adega facilitated neighbors to present allegations. Manoel Santos, Coordinator of Greenpeace in Galicia, explained it to this newspaper a few weeks ago: “What we did was supply the citizenship of models of allegations”, something that is not new.
The Xeral Secretariat of Industry has been sending letters to the signatories of the allegations so that they demonstrate that they are interested in the project approval procedure. If they do not, they will be dismissed. The Galician government has also published 820 names in the Official Gazette of Galicia of people who failed to locate and had supported allegations. According to the opponents of Altri, these maneuvers are “an anti -democratic offensive to try to gag citizens.”
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