Debating the Concept of Political Opportunities in Relation to the Galician Social Movement'Nunca Máis'

During the anti-globalization march of 1 June 2003 through the French locality of Annemasse, site of the G-8 Summit, Spanish participants were to be seen waving banners displaying the slogan 'Nunca Ma ´is' (Never Again).Although the majority of the demonstrators and onlookers were probably unaware of the meaning of the slogan, Nunca Ma ´is embodied a new social movement which, having its origins in the catastrophic spill of the oil tanker Prestige off the coast of northeastern Spain, acquired an impressive socio-political relevance not only in Galicia, the region most affected by the ecological disaster, but in the rest of Spain, too.More than six months before the Summit protest, on 13 November 2002, the single-hull tanker Prestige, loaded with 77,000 tons of petroleum, sent out an SOS message after suffering a major leak 28 miles from Fisterra on the Galician coast.Despite the adverse weather conditions, the government decided to pull the Prestige out to sea by means of tugboats.The route chosen was rather erratic and, in the end, proved fatal: at first the tanker was taken northwards, and then, following the alleged intervention of the French authorities in an effort to protect their own coastline, southwards, before finally steering eastwards.An oil slick first appeared on the Galician coast on 16 November.Three days later, the tanker broke in half, sinking to a depth of 4,000 metres 120 miles west of the Galician Cı ´es Islands while still holding around 50,000 tons of fuel.Over the following weeks, more and more oil invaded the Galician river systems known as the Lower and Upper Rias (Rı ´as Bajas y Altas).