The Japanese of Sapporo can sleep peacefully: their rivals in the race for the Winter Games in 2030 are moving backwards. Spain, especially.

The candidacy of Barcelona and the Pyrenees for the Olympic and Paralympic meeting in 2030 is multiplying the announcements. But above all, they have the effect of maintaining doubt about the chances of the project.

The latest one was expected. It concerns the upcoming organization of a referendum on the Olympic project. The Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat (Catalan regional government), Laura Vilagrà, announced Monday April 4 at a press conference the holding of a local consultation on July 24, the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Barcelona 1992 Games .

It will take place in two stages. And will be, in the words of the Catalan political leader, “ politically binding“. Clearly, its result will decide the fate of the application.

The first phase of the referendum will call on the inhabitants of the Pyrenean municipalities affected by the project to give their opinion. They will be asked whether they want the Catalan government to maintain their candidacy or not. In total, around 55.000 people could be brought to express themselves. “ We listen directly to citizens“, assured Laura Vilagrà at a press conference.

Residents of other municipalities will, for their part, be asked whether they wish to participate in the organization of the event. In the event of a favorable response, they could host training sites and/or activities indirectly linked to the Winter Games.

Unlike the Japanese in Sapporo, the Spaniards will therefore go through the polls in their march towards the Olympic meeting. Democratic, certainly, but extremely risky.

Another subject likely to weigh down the Spanish candidacy: political tensions between Catalonia and Aragon. The two regions are torn apart over the distribution of sites and roles. Their feud has even escalated a notch in recent days.

Last Friday, a meeting dedicated to the Olympic project was organized at the headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE). On the agenda, the adoption of the theoretical map of the competition sites. It foresees Catalonia hosting alpine skiing, snowboarding, artistic skiing and ski mountaineering in the Pyrenees, plus ice hockey in Barcelona. Aragon would inherit biathlon, cross-country skiing, skating (artistic, speed and short-track) and curling.

A question mark concerns ski jumping and Nordic combined on the snow side, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton on the ice side, Spain does not currently have a springboard and a track up to Olympic standards. The Spanish project could turn to a neighboring country.

The only problem, but a major one: the meeting organized by the COE to validate the technical file was marked by the absence of representatives from Aragon. Three people were seated around the table: Alejandro Blanco, the president of the COE, José Manuel Franco, the head of the Superior Sports Council, who came to represent the Spanish government, and the Catalan Laura Vilagrà (photo above). A chair remained empty. It should have been occupied by an envoy from Aragon.

Curiously, the project leaders do not seek to hide their divisions. They even display them in broad daylight, as if they hoped to put pressure on Aragon. At the end of the meeting, the Spanish Olympic Committee announced in a press release that the technical proposal had been discussed and then validated. But his press release continues: “ We hope and trust that the Government of Aragon will join this proposal"