February 17: "Not only is he an excellent president of the COE, but he has accredited totally fascinating diplomatic skills, to the point, dear Alejandro, that I would send you to Ukraine to see if you are capable of straightening out matters in that country" . These are the words of the Aragonese president, Javier Lambán, at a press conference at the Pignatelli – the headquarters of the Aragón Provincial Council – alongside Alejandro Blanco. They are not ironic, as much as they may seem so now. "Don't put it on, otherwise they'll send me later," the head of the Spanish Olympic Committee joked with journalists.
It has snowed a lot since then. Today Lambán does not profess any confidence in him, as he has admitted. In his government they consider that he has betrayed them. The history of the disagreement –until today– over the candidacy for the 2030 Winter Games in the Pyrenees has not been due so much to disagreements between Catalonia and Aragon, but rather to Lambán's disenchantment with the COE. The relationship plummets when the leader of Aragon retracts the pact of March 22 between the technical teams of the sports entity and the Spanish, Catalan and Aragonese governments.
The decision and the blockade affect the popular consultation in the Alt Pirineu and Aran. Laura Vilagrà, Presidential Adviser, on Friday accused the President of Aragon of boycotting the candidacy and postponed the consultation from July 24 to autumn, as the distribution of disciplines is now in the air. The negotiation for the candidacy is cumbersome, he wears cross-country skis.
Now everything is pending for a final meeting, possibly next week, where Blanco will present a take it or leave it, of a technical nature and surely based on what has been proposed so far. He is even willing to speak directly with the Huesca regions and leave Lambán aside if he does not reach an agreement. Private ski resorts (Candanchú and Astún) are also on Blanco's agenda. The PSOE of that province, in fact, has claimed to establish contacts with the COE, but maintains the request for evidence in the three valleys that the Aragonese president claims. In the March approach there is only evidence in one of them.
The key to Aragon is in those three valleys. Blanco made a last proposal on Monday (see graphic): pass five freestyle tests, originally planned for Baqueira Beret, to Cerler. Together with the idea of keeping the biathlon in Candanchú – it has the best track in all of Spain for this modality – but moving cross-country skiing from there to Panticosa, the three valleys would be covered. In exchange, five figure skating events planned in Zaragoza would go to Barcelona.
But Lambán does not accept. He considers the minor tests and calls for alpine skiing, assigned on March 22 to La Molina. They are considered queen tests. “Catalonia plays the Champions; we have a regional soccer league seven ”, he says this Thursday.
In the COE they do not believe and Blanco breaks the negotiation with Lambán. They accuse him of blocking the candidacy. In addition, the first proposal for the distribution of the snow disciplines is made by the Aragón technical team at the first meeting, on December 21, and it is closed right there. The president of the COE keeps videos that would prove it. Neither do the Generalitat and Moncloa understand it. The three actors only conceive that there are purely political reasons in the refusal of the Aragonese. All of them lead to the same point: Lambán has elections in 2023 and “he wants to make a profit from his confrontation with the independentistas and with Sánchez.” He worries about the platform Aragón Exists.
Lambán does not get along with the president of the central government, no matter how much he now demands his intervention. In October 2016, when the PSOE fired Sánchez, he stated that he "cannot be president of the Government of Spain with the permission of the independentistas because that would be the definitive scaffold of the PSOE." And he asked that he retire "with dignity." Sánchez's reply has arrived: full powers for Blanco.
Back to the current thread, on April 1 there is a meeting called by the COE. Aragon does not attend. The sports entity publishes a photo with the empty chair of the Aragonese representative. Days later, Lambán presents his counterproposal: distribute evidence between the two autonomies according to whether they are male or female. The COE doesn't even treat her "for crazy".
The head of Aragon, in addition, has Sánchez's statements engraved on fire, that on September 16, the day after going to Barcelona for the second meeting of the dialogue table, he promises that the Olympic candidacy will be "on an equal footing ”.
What is equal footing? By demographic weight? Catalonia, 7.5 million; Aragon, 1.3 million. Or do we have to take into account the number of disciplines? Or the tests? Or the ski resorts that are Olympic venues? Or according to the estimated number of athletes? Many of these issues are raised by Blanco at a press conference in Madrid this Wednesday (see graph).
"Sánchez made a promise that he could not do at this time", said Vilagrà some time ago in any case.
From that praise of the diplomatic skills of February, he passes to the reproach. White is aware of this. At Wednesday's press conference he is seen wanting to explain himself and addresses the journalists: “You know all the praise Mr. Lambán has given me and I'm still the same. By the way, when he was giving me those compliments, the distribution of the snow tests was already [done]. ”
The Catalan Executive has tried not to make noise, but at specific times it has not helped harmony, such as when it spoke of "leading" the candidacy with the mere "collaboration of other territories". Or like when Lambán planted Pere Aragonès shortly after in Balaguer because the head of the president's office, Sergi Sabrià, arguing over the phone with his counterpart in Aragon, José María Giral, about the protocol and the photos, blurted out: "I'm not willing to fill the Pyrenees with Spanish flags”.
The ERC-Junts dispute over the scope of the referendum has also made us think more than once that the candidacy is hanging by a thread because of Catalonia. It will be in the fall, and a no to the Games would make the controversy between Lambán and Blanco a mere joke.
