Galicia boils with anger as black tide engulfs politicians Â

The black tide still spilling from the sunken tanker Prestige is lapping at the heels of Spanish politicians, threatening to destabilise Spain's ruling Popular Party in its Galician heartland.

Galicia's veteran leader Manuel Fraga cancelled plans to inaugurate a bus station and sports centre in Lugo after slogans daubed in oil appeared on the gleaming walls, calling for him to resign.

Lugo, in Galicia's conservative interior, is Mr Fraga's home territory and political fortress. It was a dramatic warning of the growingrage among Galicians at politicians' inability to grasp the magnitude of the disaster.

As slicks advanced on Europe's finest mussel beds on Wednesday and fishermen clawed filth from the sea with their hands, Mr Fraga travelled to Madrid to inaugurate a book about herbal remedies of the convents and monasteries of Spain.

Almost three weeks after the Prestige foundered off Galicia's coast, Mr Fraga, shaken by the daubed insults, apologised on Thursday night for the government's failure to take command of the crisis.

"Forgive me if there has been any failing," he said. "There might have been some lack of co-ordination caused above all by the uncontrollable character of the winds." Mr Fraga's discomfort is likely to sound the alarm in Madrid because Galicia is the heartland of the PP, the party he founded after the death of the dictator Franco. Mr Fraga's ambiguous half-apology is unlikely to calm discontent among his hitherto unswervingly loyal compatriots.

Driven to despair at the ruin of hard-won livelihoods, Gallegos this week showed signs of turning against politicians who have long taken their support for granted.

Mr Fraga, 80, Franco's former propaganda minister, has been elected three times as Galicia's regional president and enjoys an absolute majority. He built the far-right Alianza Popular (AP) party from the political rubble of Francoism during Spain's transition to democracy in the 1970s.

During the advance of socialist and centrist alternatives in those years, the AP dwindled to a rump and survived only in impoverished, semi-feudal Galicia.

Marginalised nationally in the 1980s, Mr Fraga relaunched his party as the Partido Popular, handpicked his successor, Jose Maria Aznar – and the comeback began. Mr Aznar is now Prime Minister for the second term, also with an absolute majority.

But furious villagers from Aguino and other fishing ports in the Rias Bajas battling against the encroaching toxic fuel, complain that PP ministers treat them like sheep, or medieval serfs.

In Aguino, schoolchildren gathered at the harbour, handing out waterproof overalls, carbon masks, gloves and goggles to exhausted fishermen who had been out since dawn collecting filth in their little boats from the islands of Vionta and Salvora.

The teenagers, all children of fishermen, organised collections to buy the essential kit, because the authorities had supplied nothing. "It's a disgrace. We're not getting help to save our rias [inlets]. Politicians go hunting while our parents are out cleaning the sea," said Patricia, 16.

Jesus Trinanes, 35, dragged his oil-drenched feet along the harbour, and gazed at the youngsters with admiration. "Don't listen to the politicians," he tells them. "Fraga is like the Pope in Rome. He's past it. We saw Don Manuel the other day hiding behind the King. He should resign. You'll have to look after us when we're old, but if you don't want to I don't blame you. Look at the world we're leaving you." He ripped off his filthy gear and flung it to the ground.

Benigno Fernandez, 52, who had spent most of his lifetime at sea, prepared for another trip. "I've been a fisherman since I was 12, and I've never seen anything like this tragedy," he said.

He had been shovelling toxic muck from the sea with a spade. "It's humiliating. We feel totally abandoned by the politicians, they denied us help," he said.

Ramona Rivas, 43, pushed forward. "I've been proud to be a fisherwoman since I was a snotty-nosed kid, proud to go out in the wind and the rain and know your companions were with you. I'm the daughter of mariners, it's in my blood. We're losing our fish to devote ourselves to this horrible work. Who's going to compensate us for the loss of our earnings, and all that lovely fish?"

The indignation infected the children. "Fraga treats us all like children," said Maria, 17. "Well he should watch out. When Galicia awakes, it'll be very hard to lull it to sleep again."