BarcelonaThe headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) in Madrid was the venue for the meeting to formalize the technical proposal for an Olympic candidacy to bring the Winter Olympics to the Pyrenees, despite the decision of Aragonese President Javier Lambán to reject the proposal that all parties had considered valid a week ago puts the whole project at risk.
As explained by ARA, the three parties present, the COE, the central government and the Generalitat de Catalunya, have decided to “validate the proposal” approved by the technical commission, hoping that “the government of Aragon will sumi “. The Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat, Laura Vilagrà, had assured on arrival in Madrid that she had made the trip “to definitively close an agreement. We had six technical meetings in which we negotiated and finally closed a proposal. The COE quoted us precisely to sign this agreement and that is what we have come to do “he said before meeting with the President of the COE, Alejandro Blanco, and the Secretary of State for Sport, José Manuel Franco.
Aragón was not represented at today’s meeting after President Javier Lambán stepped down because he considers that the two communities are not included on equal terms. Vilagrà considers that the agreed proposal that Blanco made public is “a good proposal from the point of view of competition and chances of winning, of being selected for the Olympic candidacy”. On the absence of the Aragonese government, he explained that “we will not enter into controversy. We have had many hours to debate. The proposal is good, it is winning, it is competitive and we will not move.” Vilagrà recalled how for days it was difficult to find an agreement on the distribution of venues, as for example “we also wanted to have all the skating in Catalonia and it has not been like that. We will not open anything, we will not open the debate”.
A few hours earlier, the Minister of Sports Miquel Iceta had asked not to “politicize” the candidacy defending the need to find an agreement between all parties, as a candidacy needs the participation of both Catalonia and Aragon.
