The association involved in the anti-oil fight in Loulé Administrative Court, ASMA, reports that over 700 people endorsed its right to represent the 42,000 members of the public who earlier had signed an anti-oil petition.
Individuals and associations signed and sent a letter to Loulé Court after the government’s lawyers successfully petitioned the judge with the argument that, as the original 42,000 people had signed the petition a while ago, they might have changed their minds.
ASMAA launched an appeal through email and the media for supporters to email the Court which they did, in their droves and within the ten days stipulated by the judge.
ASMAA’s Laurinda Seabra comments, “Sérvulo and Associados and PLMJ, two of Portugal’s largest law firms are representing the Government and Galp-ENI in this Court process, with the presence of a former minister in the legal team.”
This team tried to undermine ASMAA’s legitimacy to represent the earlier signatories oi a class action that aims to prove the oil contracts as illegitimate and unconstitutional.
Over 700 citizens and two associations responded directly to Loulé Court and ASMAA now faces the combined opposition of the Portuguese State, the Ministry of Economy, the National Entity for the Energy Sector, the Ministry of the Sea, the Directorate General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services, the Ministry of Environment, the Directorate General for Energy and Geology and the Portuguese Environment Agency, along with the Galp-ENI consortium.
Seabra commented, “These figures make this action against oil exploration one of the most participated in popular actions, if not the most popular, popular action, ever to take place in a Portuguese court.”
The head of ASMAA's board thanked everyone that signed and sent the letter to Loulé Court, but also urged caution as the road ahead potentially is even trickier, especially with so many taxpayer-funded top-class lawyers representing the government's interests over those of the population:
"The Judge will still need to give her award on the representation. But yes, we are grateful for the massive wave of support that we received in a few days. Now we have another few days to deal with the next claim ...which is that we (ASMAA) are potential competitors to the concessionaries (Galp-ENI) ridiculous we know…"
This second, time-wasting move by the State's lawyers, claiming ASMAA is a competitor to an oil company, shows the ludicrous depths to which the government's legal team is prepared to sink as it tries to trash ASMAA's claim that the government's own rules were not followed in the run up to issuing a drilling licence.
