The technical proposal put together by the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) for the Pyrenean bid to stage the 2030 Winter Olympics has not convinced one of the two autonomous communities involved: the government of Aragon. The Socialist president of that community, Javier Lambán, announced on Tuesday that he will not sign the proposal presented by the COE, as he considers that it presents "an unbalanced distribution" of events between Aragon and its supposed Games partner, Catalonia. "It is unfair to Aragon, and unacceptable," said the president, who said that his executive would soon present, but without rushing into it, its own alternative.
Aragon's president Javier Lambán: "We are going to put toegther a proposal which we consider more just and balanced."
Alejandro Blanco, president of the COE, signed a letter addressed to the Spanish government, the Catalan government and the Aragonese government, which included the technical proposal for the organization of the Winter Olympics candidacy. The next step was for the governments involved to validate the committee's proposal, and then formalize the candidacy before the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, this step has been truncated by Aragon's rejection. The distribution of the events by location and venue presented by the COE does not convince the Lambán executive, as it only apportions two event locations to Aragon: the mountain gateway city of Jaca and the capital Zaragoza. The former is proposed to host curling, and the latter, figure skating and speed skating.
This morning, Lambán commented on the COE's proposal during a regional government solidarity event for Ukraine. "It is unacceptable that the bid benefits one party to the detriment of the other, it is unacceptable for a part of the Pyrenees to be left without the benefit of the Games," he said. In statements to the media, he stated that the "sporting scope" of the events "clearly favours Catalonia". The Aragonese president was also upset by the leak which took place last Friday, when the Catalan government announced that a technical pre-agreement had been reached, which the administration in Zaragoza denied, according to the EFE agency.
Anger over Games bid
While the Games bid is still being negotiated and worked on by the government bodies involved, several organizations in the Pyrenees are coming together to show their rejection of the Pyrenees Olympic Games project. The Stop the Olympics platform has called for a "Catalonia-wide demonstration" for May 15th. The organization has stated that it intends to organize a demonstration aimed at families, with the intention of showing the rejection by local residents of the project. The aim is to appeal to not only the citizens of the area, but to "the whole country".
"We can't base economic development on real estate speculation": Stop the Olympic platform makes its call for a protest on May 15th, with a major demonstration in Puigcerdà, coordinated with other events around Catalonia.