We could start at the end with a summary: an environmental catastrophe, the Palestinian genocide and the looming Galizan national elections.
The beginning of 2024 saw a continuation in the outpouring Galizan solidarity for Palestine, which endures a brutal assault at the hands of the Zionist occupation regime since October 2023. Due to the own peculiarities of our own territory and society, public displays mostly took the form of a myriad of small events across the country, notwithstanding two major demonstrations that did take place in the capital, Compostela, with figures well into the thousands.
The pressure and the actions go on, and there is no sign of stopping, for as long as the Palestinians need it.
Within our borders, Galiza faced one more environmental crisis, on this occasion caused by the spill of millions of nurdles (plastic pellets) from the cargo ship Toconao on 8th December 2023. Although the Liberian-flagged ship lost six containers loaded with 26.3 tons of said pellets off the Portuguese coast, the pellets first found their way to the northern Galizan shores, and continued to spread further along the south and into the estuaries after that.
Such an obvious emergency was made worse by the initial denial and passiveness of the Galizan Government, an irresponsible attitude which at first made many fear a new “Prestige oil spill” (2002).
Days passed until the usual political bicker gave way to an official response, though the authorities continued to minimise the blatant danger to the health of the population, marine life and possible effects on the fishing industry.
Hence, and once again in our recent history, it came down to the actual Galizan People to fight off the situation by means of self-organisation and volunteering for cleaning operations.
At present, and thanks to that collective community effort, the situation seems to be under control; however, the long term effects of the nurdles which could not be retrieved remain to be seen. Linked to this, the old but always present debate over the supervision and control of our own territorial waters and environment has been revived, as Galizan waters often suffer more than benefit from international shipping.
One could think that the usual political discussions regarding all of the above were influenced by, or did indeed influence, the call for elections this coming 18th February.
Certainly, everything points to the fact that it will be a highly contested vote, where the ruling conservative pro-Spanish Partido Popular (PP) is speculated to be on the verge of losing government to the raising numbers of left-wing Galizan nationalists, Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG), in alliance with the Spanish Socialists (PSdeG-PSOE).
The Galizan Parliament is composed by 75 members, where the absolute majority stands at 38. The most recent polls grant PP (currently at 42) a narrow margin of victory (36-39). In any case, it has been predicted that the far-right and right wing popular vote will be in a clear minority, and could only claim victory thanks to the complex seat distribution by territory (according to the D’Hondt method). Polls allocate 3 more seats for BNG (from 19 in 2020 to 22 now) and one less to PsdeG-PSOE (from 14 to 13).
Definitive results will probably be known just before midnight on that same 18th February.