Catalonia announced on Monday that it will organize a local referendum on the candidacy of the Spanish Pyrenees to organize the 2030 Winter Olympics, facing much resistance.
This consultation, scheduled for July 24, will have two parts and will be politically validsaid the minister of the presidency of the Catalan regional government, Laura Vilagrà.
Residents of the Pyrenean municipalities that are likely to host the largest number of Olympic events will first of all be called upon to say whether the Catalan government should retain their candidacy or not.
According to Ms Vilagrà, 55,000 people can be called to express their views on this issue. We listen directly to the people likely to be affected by the event, he insisted at a press conference.
Residents of other nearby towns will be asked if they would like to participate in the organization of this event, which was opposed by environmentalists and local associations.
According to the platform Stop the Olympicssupported by some personalities like Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet, it is seriously irresponsible to arrange this event in an area that is less snowy due to the increase in temperature due to climate change.
Beyond these oppositions, the Spanish candidacy is battling disagreements between Catalonia and Aragon, a neighboring region where the draft candidacy, for the Olympics which will be the first Winter Olympics in Spain, was first designed. .
Annoyed by the distribution of events it considers unbalanced, the Aragon region on Friday refused to certify the technical candidacy project, endorsed by the central government, the Catalan regional government and the Spanish Olympic Committee.
According to this project, Catalonia will host alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and hockey, planned in Barcelona. Aragon will host biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure and speed skating events and curling.
Other sites, which have yet to be determined, will be created for this application, to host ski jumping, Nordic combined, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge events.
At this point, only one city has officially applied for the 2030 Winter Games, Sapporo, host of the Winter Olympics in 1972. But other cities have expressed interest, such as Salt Lake City and Vancouver.
Source: Radio-Canada