Although he acknowledged that participating in a Games “is the dream of every athlete”, Jornet has taken a stand against the candidacy, considering that it “perpetuates an environmentally unsustainable economic and tourist model”: “There are more important things “Sport for society and the environment. We need a sustainable model for the Pyrenees, which allows people to live all year round. The Pyrenees do not need a Games.” The document has been signed by some forty people and organizations rooted in the Catalan Pyrenees, including Jornet himself, the mountaineer Araceli Segarra, the philosopher Xavier Antich and the scientist Anna Pérez.
The platform, presented in August, aims to bring together the inhabitants of the Pyrenees who reject an Olympic project that, according to its spokesman, Bernat Lavaquiol, has been conceived “from Barcelona, with its back to the Pyrenees and lack of transparency by of the Government “. “Our goals are to achieve the withdrawal of the Olympic candidacy and that the planned investment is intended to meet the needs of the Pyrenees. Adapt the economy to climate change,” said Lavaquiol, for whom the Games would strengthen “a socio-economic model of tourist monoculture that excludes young people from the Pyrenees “. “It is the eighth Pyrenean candidacy since 1976. None of them have gone ahead, they are projects made from the capital, be it Zaragoza or Barcelona, back to the needs of the neighbors. We do not accept the blackmail that states that without the Games there will be no transport infrastructure. We need it, and we are inhabitants with the same rights, “Lavaquiol said.
Emma Rojas, from Ramaderes de Catalunya, recalled the “lack of transparency of the project”. “First it was led by the mayor of Barcelona Hereu, then others … Always in high spheres. The project has never been transferred to the town halls, to the territory. We see many meetings, many events in circles like the Equestrian, with important people. But wouldn’t it be better to invest all these millions in communication between towns, in having effective public transport, in promoting public health or in improving the educational offer? ” Rojas recalled that “the current model of ski slopes is an outdated model, it has no future with climate change.” “In 2017, La Molina alone spent 1.5 million euros making snow. If you make artificial snow, the water cycle is altered,” Rojas concluded. Lavaquiol recalled that in Innsbruck (Austria), Switzerland and Calgary (Canada) the population voted against organizing a Games. In Catalonia, the Government has promised to hold a referendum in a year in the counties most affected by the project.
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