The Aragonese president, Javier Lambán, has announced his intention to renew the common front of businessmen, unions and mayors of the Pyrenees in defense of a candidacy of Aragon and Catalonia on equal terms for the organization of the Olympic Games of Winter 2030. “We will defend our position to the last consequences and we will demand that the Government and the Spanish Olympic Committee respect us”, he has sentenced in line with what was demanded this week by the PP.
In an appearance before the Cortes at his own request to account for the political action in the face of the Ukraine crisis, the socialist leader took the opportunity to refer to the response to Aragon’s marginalization in the Olympic project, at the same time that the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, Felipe Faci, presented in Madrid the alternative technical proposal to the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco. “It supposes a balanced distribution, with the use of the stations of the three Aragonese valleys, which have even better conditions than the stations of Catalonia”, he said.
Lambán has pointed out that the second line of work is the “updating” of the business, union and Aragonese Pyrenees endorsement of a project shared on equality that already took place on November 26 in Zaragoza and Jaca. “So that it is known in all instances that Aragon, in a resounding way, wants the Games on an equal footing”has said.
The president has assured that Aragón defended “tooth and nail” before the technical commission of the candidacy a balanced distribution of venues and tests between the Aragonese and Catalan Pyrenees. “They were all rejected, but I was reassured by the permanent commitment by the president of the COE that our demands would be reflected,” he said.
In his opinion, the process was “ambiguous” and he has regretted that the proposal endorsed by the COE and the Government was that of the Generalitat, to the point of “verifying with astonishment” that the tests assigned to Aragon were those in which Catalonia It has recognized for years that it does not have facilities, those for biathlon skiing, skating and curling. “This it is absolutely unacceptable, a blatant breach of what was guaranteed to me, but now comes the moment of truth, the moment of making decisions in the political field”, he asserted,
Lambán has branded the attitude of the Catalan Government as “anti-Olympic” and has stressed that one should not fall into the “trap of haste”, especially when the Generalitat has convened a consultation to decide its participation in the candidacy. “We are not going to accept that an agreement must be closed quickly and immediately,” he said before stressing that Aragon’s will is not to confront Catalonia, but “to cooperate because it is the only way for the candidacy to be a winner.” And he has concluded that Aragon will not participate at any price, but only when the dignity of Aragon is “respected”.