That the 2030 Winter Olympics would be in full swing was coming. If the success of Barcelona'92 was largely due to the understanding that existed between the different administrations involved, the failure of these unborn Pyrenees 2030 is explained by the poor harmony that during all these months have exhibited the autonomous governments of Catalonia and Aragon. How can one believe in the viability of the project when the partners who were to carry it out have not stopped quarreling from day one and have not even been able to agree on the name? Among pro-independence politicians, it was uneasy to participate on an equal footing with another autonomous community in an initiative promoted by the central government. Only the fear of the reaction of the beneficiary counties prevented them from openly demarcating themselves. For the time being, the ambiguity was comfortable for them. If this is the case then maybe this is the way to go. And if not, even better: they got rid of the problem.
But with these tactics you never get anywhere: you can’t be saying one thing with your small mouth and another with your big one at the same time, helping with one hand and sabotaging with the other. The unilateralism of the Government of Pere Aragonès, the suspicions of companionship between the representatives of this one and the president of the COE and the consequent suspicions of the Government of Javier Lambán did the rest. To mash the Winter Games without even formalizing the application! The news was welcomed at the Palau de la Generalitat with poorly disguised relief: one less mess. That at the end of the stall the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco, blamed the failure Javier Lambán suggests that his suspicions were not entirely unfounded. What is there, in the end, is summed up in one word: failure. Failure for the two governments involved, which have given an image of inflexibility and mismanagement. Failure for the COE, which since Madrid was left without the 2020 Games does not raise its head. And failure, without any reproach to them, for the residents of the Pyrenees valleys, who have seen the promises of improvements to their infrastructures disappear overnight. As in Cervantes' sonnet, "it was and there was nothing."
So far the bad news. Now, the good one. Aragonese newspapers have recently spoken of Lambán's desire to restore a good neighborly relationship with Catalonia and, as a first step, has approved the rehabilitation of the headquarters of the Aragonese Center in Barcelona, called to be "a meeting place and mutual respect ”. Well, it doesn’t seem like such a decision has to be justified by the Olympic Games fiasco, but welcome to this refurbishment, which the old and noble building on Joaquín Costa Street had been asking for for a long time.
A century ago, one in fifteen Barcelonans was of Aragonese origin, and a little later, in 1930, five times more Aragonese lived in Barcelona than in Huesca: Barcelona was, by far, the second largest city in Aragon. Those were the institution’s heyday, documented in the photos in the book that commemorated the first centenary in 2009: Attendance at banquets, public events and various festivals was always crowded. The building, made of exposed brick and neo-Mudejar inspiration, with two stone grandstands in the style of the old Renaissance palaces, is an exhibition of the power of the Aragonese community of Barcelona, and is part of the historic Goya Theater, which Margarida Xirgu's company was a regular and where, for example, Mariana Pineda de Lorca premiered ... But those were other times. The golden age of regional houses is long over, and the concept is anachronistic. Right now, the Aragonese Center has a few hundred members and their dues are not even enough to cover the basic maintenance works. In the long run, with fewer and fewer members and higher costs, the building was doomed to ruin, and its salvation required the Aragonese Government, as has happened, to take ownership of the building in exchange for charge of conservation. Still lucky that sometimes some things go well.
