The start of the Winter Olympic Games in the Italian Dolomites, with Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo as main venues, has reopened the debate on the national strategy for the Pyrenees. Employer associations, including Empresariat Cerdanya and the Associació d'Hostaleria de l'Alt Urgell, regret that Catalonia has remained a mere spectator of an event it could have hosted.
The entities recall that the Barcelona-Pyrenees 2026 bid was initially well-regarded but was discarded due to a lack of political leadership. The subsequent 2030 project also failed without even being put to a referendum, demonstrating, according to the business sector, a "territorial double standard."
When the center is the metropolitan area, everything seems possible; when it is the Pyrenees, everything becomes debatable.
The economic sector rejects the argument that climate change makes any future project unviable, noting that in the winter of 2026 there is good snow presence. The employers warn that losing the Games is a symptom of a deeper problem: the absence of an ambitious territorial project for the Pyrenees.
Business entities demand that the Pyrenees stop being managed as a tourist postcard and call for investment, strategic planning, and a national vision that understands its development as a collective responsibility. They warn that the future will be defended with concrete projects, not slogans.
