Políticas de comunicación de las instituciones públicas ante proyectos que originan una gran contestación social. Caso Zabalgarbi

Abstract

In recent years there has been a considerable increase in the number of institutional crises caused by movements opposed to the realisation of certain public projects: the firing range in the Bárdenas Reales, the Madrid-Valencia motorway, the transfer of water from the Ebro river, the Ordunte wind farm, the installation of incinerators, the Basque "Y", etc. What all of these projects have in common is that they are public works developed by the government institutions, as well as being the object of strong opposition from citizens in the form of ecologist groups, political parties and citizens' coordinators. Besides, in each project the Administration and the opposition groups have generated such a volume of news that the mass media have become stages and actors in the process. How, then, should a communication policy be drawn up that is capable of overcoming media and popular pressure so that the project can be developed? This article approaches this phenomenon on the basis of analysing the process that led to the construction of a garbage incinerator in Bizkaia, known as the Zabalgarbi case.