Madrid, March 24, 2025 (Lusa) - The Spanish government on Monday assured that the project in Galicia by the Portuguese pulp company Altri will be subject to the "maximum environmental safeguards", following a protest on Saturday that mobilised thousands of people in A Coruña.
"On the part of the government, what we do with any project, and in this case with Altri's, is to submit it to the maximum environmental safeguards," said the Minister for the Environment Transition, Sara Aagasen, in response to journalists in Madrid.
Abel Losada, the deputy head of the Spanish government (led by the Socialists) in the province of Pontevedra (Galicia), expressed doubts about the project today, blaming the Galician regional executive (known as the Xunta and led by the Popular Party) for an ‘initial mistake’ regarding the nature of the plant that Altri intends to set up in the region.
Abel Losada said that the Xunta presented the project as a textile fibre plant "at the cutting edge and with the latest in technology", something which, he argued, is now unconfirmed.
"Suddenly, when we go from the ‘power point’ to reality, we see that it's a pulp and paper production plant, which inherits all the problems that this sector has in Galicia," added Abel Losada, quoted by the Europa Press news agency.
In this context, the Spanish government representative expressed doubts about the project's eligibility for European funds related to decarbonisation, the allocation of which depends on the national executive.
Last week, the Spanish Minister for Industry, Jordi Hereu, was questioned in the parliament about the project and the European funds it could benefit from, and replied that the favourable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) approved by the autonomous regional government a few days earlier does not determine a decision regarding Community support.
"There's no room for ambiguity, only outright dismissal," replied the MP for the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG), Néstor Rego, emphasising that after the publication of the EIS and the green light from the regional executive, it is the Spanish government that "holds the key" to the future of Altri's project.
Meanwhile, the regional government, through Ángeles Vázques, the councillor responsible for the environment, reiterated on Sunday that the project will have no negative impact on health and in the "different productive sectors", said that "it hasn't changed at all" since it was announced and emphasised that before last year's regional elections it had the support of the various parties represented in the autonomous parliament.
Between 20,000 people (according to the local authorities) and 50,000 (according to the organisation) demonstrated on Saturday in A Pobra (A Coruña, Galicia, northern Spain) against Altri's project for Palas de Rei (Lugo, Galicia).
Speaking to Lusa on the eve of the demonstration, Manoel Santos, Greenpeace's leader in Galicia, explained that this was the fifth major mobilisation to oppose "the most damaging and aggressive industrial project of recent decades" for the region.
The rally aimed to convince the Spanish government "not to finance the project with €250 million in European funds", with Greenpeace warning that it intends to take the challenge to court.
When questioned by Lusa, Altri said the same day, through an official source, that "the demonstrations, being a democratic right, do not reflect the thinking of the Galician people", adding that it "does not comment on political matters".
The company also considered the Xunta de Galicia's EIS on the GAMA soluble fibre project, designed for Palas de Rei through its subsidiary Greenfiber, "an important recognition that the industrial project complies with all the European Union's environmental requirements".
"We don't accept the EIS and we're going to demonstrate in court that it's fraudulent, that it doesn't comply with the Galician or European environmental directives," warned Manoel dos Santos.
The planned location "is an area of high environmental value that has been left unprotected by the Xunta", he said, emphasising that the project " requires a lot of water, jeopardising the Ulha river and the Arosa estuary".
"Altri wants to capture 46 million litres of water a day, which is what the province of Lugo or a city like Vigo consumes. What's more, it's planning to discharge 30 million litres of contaminated water a day," he criticised.
The project also involves planting more eucalyptus trees, according to Manoel Santos.
Altri, meanwhile, assured that "through a closed circuit system, it will recover more than 99% of the solvents used, minimise waste generation and return the captured water to the environment, complying with the highest environmental standards".
The textile fibre factory is "a project based on the circular economy, where everything is optimised: water, waste and energy".
"This is a project that will set a milestone in the textile industry in Galicia and the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, becoming the first factory in the world to include, in a single industrial complex, the two key processes for the production of lyocell: the transformation of eucalyptus wood into soluble fibres and their direct conversion into lyocell," the company explained.
The planned investment is over €1 billion and "around 2,500 jobs are expected to be created, 500 of which will be direct jobs in a factory that will operate 24 hours a day."
MP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
