The spokesperson for the Generalitat de Catalunya, Patricia Plaja, has made it clear that “Catalonia wants the Winter Games” and has defended that the agreement reached with the Olympic Committee and the Government is “beneficial” for all parties, for which reason he has urged Aragon to define its position.
After the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alexander Whiteset May 20 as the deadline to close a definitive agreement for a joint candidacy between Catalonia and Aragon for the 2030 Winter Olympics, Plaja has summoned Aragon to define its position and “answer the questions” in this regard.
“Catalonia wants the Olympic Games. Catalonia has closed an agreement with the other parties involved that was a beneficial agreement for the country, it is a very good candidacy,” defended the spokeswoman for the Catalan Executive, at a press conference after the weekly meeting of the Govern.
beach has considered that “now it is the COE that must make public that final agreement, which was beneficial, it was three-way and it was, as its name indicates, what was agreed upon”.
However, he recalled, “in politics, forms are also very important”, for which he has made it clear that the Generalitat will not enter into “responses to outbursts and unjustified actions, not on the part of Aragon, but of its president Javier Lambán”.
On whether Catalonia would consider running alone if that joint candidacy is shipwrecked, as Aragón has also suggested for its part, the spokeswoman did not want to do “Future questions about what Aragon will do or what movements the Government of Aragon or Lambán will make.”
“I do not put myself in fictional scenarios, which have not materialized today. The Government wants this candidacy for the Olympic Games and therefore we will see, if the conditions are not met to carry out the agreement that was already established, what are the different scenarios that are on the table”, he explained.
For now, beyond this issue, this Thursday, May 19, the Government will meet the Catalan territorial table on the Winter Games project, which brings together different representatives of the territorial and local spheres involved in a hypothetical Olympic candidacy.
The IOC gives room
On the other hand, the Spanish Pere Mirospecial advisor to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), assured this Tuesday, regarding the possibility of a unitary candidacy between Catalonia and Aragon for the 2030 Winter Games, that “there is no deadline” to make a decision.
This was commented in a statement to Catalunya Ràdio. Three days before the expiration of the previous term established by the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) to reach an agreement, Miró insisted that for the IOC it is “better than subtracting”, in reference to a unitary or solo candidacy.
“From the IOC, the process to choose an organizing city or country goes through a process of permanent dialogue and we have not set any date. This dialogue is being developed not only with the Pyrenees but with other cities in the world. So for us that limit does not exist“, he added.