Friday April 1, 12 in the morning.
On a small round table at the headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), four chairs, four blank sheets of paper, four bottles of water and four glasses.
Three chairs are occupied.
On the left, José Manuel Franco, president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), representing the central government;
in front, Alejandro Blanco, president of the COE, the host;
On the right, Laura Vilagrà, Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya, one of the halves of what is wanted to be the Spanish candidacy for the 2030 Winter Games with the Pyrenees as the center.
The fourth chair is empty.
It should have been occupied by a representative of the Government of Aragon, the other half.
It should have been a four-part meeting and a united family photo that would have brought to Lausanne, to the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the image of the strength of the union, the story that sport, the Games, fundamentally it exists to erase borders, to unite peoples over historical, cultural or political differences, but the resulting photo sends the completely opposite message to the world: two neighboring autonomous communities are incapable of reaching an agreement even before starting to walk .
“At the meeting, the proposal presented, debated and agreed upon by the Technical Commission [the so-called technical agreement for the distribution of venues] was validated.
We hope and trust that the Government of Aragon will join this proposal, ”says the statement issued by the COE.
The clock is ticking.
The term to reach a definitive agreement may not be more than two weeks, until Easter, COE sources specify, who recall that those responsible for the IOC who will choose the venue in the first quarter of 2023 will visit the proposed facilities in May by the applicants.
The Japanese city of Sapporo, already the organizer of the Winter Games 50 years ago, seems to be the great favorite.
"But it does not take us any advantage," they specify from the COE.
"Its facilities are technically very good and ours are fine, but our strength is the story, the union that sports create, and that the Pyrenees, a great mountain range, have never hosted the Games."
Both communities are willing to continue their race to the Games alone, and it would be the COE who would decide which of the two would be the Spanish candidacy.
But all also consider that separately it would be impossible to obtain the Games.
Those attending the frustrated meeting in Madrid in which the technical agreement on the distribution of venues for the Games should have been signed blamed its failure, obviously, on the absentee, the Aragonese president Javier Lambán, from the PSOE, who, according to all parties, reneged last Saturday, a few hours after accepting it, of an agreement that brought biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, long track and short track speed skating and curling to his community.
Catalonia accepted alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle, ski mountaineering and ice hockey.
Following the advice of the IOC to avoid gigantism and luxury spending, the most expensive facilities, the ice tube for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, and the jumping trampolines, would not be built at the Pyrenees Games.
"In fact, the one who gave in at the agreement meeting was Catalonia, which had a more ambitious proposal for its community," says one of the 12 attendees (three people for each of the four parties, COE, Government, Catalonia and Aragon). to that meeting.
“The two proposals, the one from Catalonia and the one from the COE, were voted on, and this one won 3-1, and Catalonia accepted.
And the next day Lambán said no.
He now wants that in Aragon there is also alpine skiing”.
From Aragon, the socialist Lambán has argued this Friday that the candidacy is not made “on an equal footing.
"My obligation is to put the defense of the general interest of Aragon ahead of everything," he assured, and directly demanded that the COE on Twitter "respect the government of Aragon and the vast majority of Aragonese society that considers itself mistreated by its Games proposal of 2030″.
“The COE must clarify if it defends Spain or only Catalonia.
For me, the Games are important.
But Aragon is much more so”.
He is applauded in Seville, and supported, by the president of the Aragonese PP and mayor of Zaragoza, Jorge Azcón, who has proclaimed that the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, first defends the interests of his "radical independentist partners", ERC, than to Aragon.
Minister Vilagrà, from ERC, recalls, for her part, that there have been six technical meetings and that an agreement has been reached, a good proposal from a competitive point of view and the chances of winning, and adds, upon reaching the headquarters of the COE that has gone to sign the agreement, and not to enter into political controversies with the absent Lambán.
Yes, the trustee of the Conselh de Arán (Catalonia), Maria Vergés, one of the people who worked hardest to convince the Generalitat to share the Games with Aragon, has made a statement.
“This position [that of Lambán] is not understood at a key moment to close the candidacy after months of talks and negotiations.
We will work to preserve the relationship with Aragon, but with this contempt from the Aragon government, a before and after opens in our institutional relations”.
While sources close to the central government point out that they do not believe that Lambán even wants the Games for Aragon and that all his changes of mind are guided by electoral calculations (in 2023 there will be regional elections), a certain sense of unease prevails in the COE.
"After having achieved what we believed to be the most difficult, that Catalonia, the first to think of the Games and thought of going alone, accepted that their idea be shared, now the joint candidacy is blown up by the other side", reflects Alejandro Blanco, to whom the Government of Pedro Sánchez entrusted the task of uniting both communities.
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