The protest concentration that the Galician mussels convene weekly in front of the Xunta headquarters in Santiago coinciding with the meeting of the Galician Government has turned into a pitched battle this Thursday, with several policemen and demonstrators injured and at least two detainees.
The origin of the clash is in the war that this sector has declared against the 2019 regional decree that establishes that they can share with the barnacles the rocks where the mussel and barnacle reproduce naturally.
These are cliffs that historically were the monopoly of those who produce mussels in the rafts, since they extract the mollusc's seed there Tension has skyrocketed on the eve of the electoral campaign, with the request for the resignation of the Minister of the Sea, Rosa Quintana.
The protest started this Thursday around eight in the morning and, at that early hour, to the surprise of the protesters, several National Police cars were already flanking the Xunta administrative building in Santiago.
With the spirits tense due to the unexpected reception, the trigger for the police charge was a stone that hit the window of one of the patrol cars and caused two of the protesters to be arrested for public disorder and attack against authority.
Sources from the Government Sub-delegation in A Coruña assure that participants in the protest at the Xunta headquarters, which was not communicated, "tried to access the building by climbing over the fence."
According to the Sub-delegation, this motivated national police officers to try to stop them and, in response, the demonstrators began to throw stones and branches at the officers and set fire to containers.
The police presence has been justified by the authorities due to the fact that previous concentrations in the Galician capital have caused chaotic traffic situations.
The agents fired rubber bullets when the demonstrators marched through the streets of the old town of Compostela, setting off firecrackers bound for the city police station, where a large security device was waiting that has blocked Rodrigo de Padrón street, reports Europa Press.
The police intervention, which has been described as "disproportionate" by the mussel sector, has resulted in seven injuries.
Three of them are officers with minor injuries and the other four are protesters who ended up in the hospital.
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Councillor
Rosa Quintana must resign because she has only confronted two sectors and does not offer any solution to the problem that tomorrow would be resolved if article 13 of the decree that regulates shellfish exploitation is repealed," sources from the mussel sector have defended.
The Unified Police Union (SUP) has "strongly condemned the events" in a statement.
The SUP has transferred its "total support" to the police action and has confirmed that "two violent protesters" have been arrested.
In addition, the central has announced that it will appear as a private prosecution in the complaint presented by the agents who have been injured.
The Government delegate in Galicia, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, has refused to speak of "proportion or disproportion" in the actions of the National Police during the protest.
Besteiro stressed that the concentration was not communicated and that "this is a problem that is the responsibility of the Xunta", referring to the conflict between the raft sector and barnacles due to the scarcity of seed on the cliffs to grow mussels.
The general secretary of the PSdeG, Valentín González Formoso, has urged the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, to relieve the counselor of Mar and take charge of the negotiations to solve the conflict on the cheek.
Formoso accuses the head of the Xunta and Rosa Quintana of "artificially generating a conflict between two sectors that had been without problems for 60 years."
Formoso has stressed that these are two strategic sectors, which generate 3,000 direct jobs and more than 10,000 indirect ones: "There are thousands of families that depend on an agreement that allows the two activities to survive cordially."
A conflict to recover a monopoly
In September 2021, the Superior Court of Galicia (TSXG) dismissed the appeal of the five main mussel associations against the decree of the Ministry of the Sea that regulates the regime of conservation and exploitation of shellfish resources and algae.
The mussel producers demanded its annulment, understanding that it modifies the regime for extracting the seed from rock, essential for the cultivation of the mollusk, since in its article 13.1 it establishes that "management plans for barnacles may reserve areas for the extraction of mussel spat”.
But Mar's decision to mark exclusion zones to protect the barnacle, seeking a balance between the survival of this species and the extraction of cheek, put the mussels, an economically much more powerful sector, on a war footing.
A year ago, the tension became evident when a group of producers came to corner and shake Quintana violently in an official act shouting "traitor."
For the mussel sector, the decree ends what they themselves define as "a monopoly", and they are critical that the barnacles, under agreements with the brotherhoods, can also market the seed that later develops on the ropes of the rafts during one year minimum.
For the Xunta, however, the regulations aim to protect all shellfish resources, particularly the barnacle, making possible the coexistence of two species in the same physical space.
The impatience in the powerful mussel sector in this battle for shellfish resources has been increasing while it awaits responses from the Xunta to put an end to a "legal formula" that they consider absolutely detrimental to their interests, they say.
The opening of new extraction areas seemed like a Solomonic solution, but it has not been for the mussel farmers who demand the repeal of the rule that goes against their commercial and survival interests.
Mar argues that a resource is not taken from the mussels because it is a public domain space that must be exploited as demanded by the European Union, although he admits that it is difficult for the sector to adapt to changing a way of working that dates back to 1947. Quintana defends the three-way dialogue, between both sectors and the Administration, and maintains that Galicia is an "example of management in Europe" and should be so "in respect for the environment".