Disappointment for Malaga: Belgrade takes over the venue for Expo 2027

The greyish sky, illuminated by an electrical storm, with which Malaga woke up seemed to herald the disappointment that hours later hung over the city. Some 1,700 kilometers away, in Paris, France, the city's hopes of becoming the site of the 2027 International Exposition with the theme The Urban Age: Towards the Sustainable City have evaporated.. A total of 11 votes from the delegates of the 172nd assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) have helped Belgrade (Serbia) to win an event in which the capital of Malaga had projected part of its immediate development.

The day started with the Spanish delegation starting the carousel of interventions of the five candidacies. It had exceeded the estimated time for Malaga to begin exposing its project, when the journalist María Casado appeared on the stage of the Palais des Congrès. The master of ceremony was inserting comments about the potential of the city between the speeches of the personalities who defended the proposal. The first, as planned, the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre.

The councilor stressed the current importance of sustainability and the need for it to be an element on which the development of cities should pivot, to then point out some of the strengths of Malaga's candidacy. “It is a place capable of welcoming millions of visitors, with an airport connected to 140 destinations, security, a mild climate and an intense cultural life”.

A city “capable of making those who visit it happy” and that aspires to become a “sustainability laboratory,” added the president of the Provincial Council, Francisco Salado, who wanted to reaffirm the union around the candidacy when he assured that the other 102 municipalities in the province have endorsed it.

In this sense, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, stated that Expo 2027 is a “great shared dream” and “strongly” pleaded for the vote of the BIE delegates because “we are prepared and very excited”. The regional leader delved into the idea expressed by De la Torre and remarked that environmental responses must be sought “at a critical moment for all humanity”. It is, as he explained, the “survival of the planet” and the need to continue looking for formulas to “mitigate the effects of climate change”..

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, addressed the voters in perfect French with which he glossed over the Phoenician, Arab and Roman origins of a city that in recent years has become “a place of life” for people from all over the world and which today is a benchmark in terms of innovation and culture. “We believe that it is the best place to seek together solutions to the enormous challenge of sustainability that all cities in the world face”.

Congratulations Belgrade. Thanks to all our rivals: an honor to compete with them. And many thanks to those who have worked hard and well for the candidacy of #Málaga for months, for years. We have done a huge job that will be useful for the city @malaga_2027 FTP https://t.co/RnYIlhVnTn

– Paco de la Torre (@pacodelatorrep) June 21, 2023

The consultant for the Malaga candidacy, Carmen Bueno, remarked that experts from all over the world agree on the urgency of managing the growth of cities in a sustainable manner; while the general director, Jerónimo Blasco, focused on explaining the characteristics of the venue that would host the International Exposition and recalled that it will have green spaces, restaurant areas and reliefs adapted to the climate and new technologies. The two technicians addressed the auditorium in English and French.

The Malaga project, which was presented with a video combining images of the city with a virtual reality recreation of the exhibition center, had the support of Pau Gasol, actress Paz Vega and soccer player Sergio Ramos. The presentation closed with a performance by Luz Casal in which she wanted to make a “declaration of love” to Malaga by performing live a fragment of A Perfect Place, the soundtrack of the announcement of the City Council's tourism promotion campaign..

Francisco de la Torre, once the presentations of the five aspiring candidacies had concluded, emphasized the “unity of action” woven by all the administrations around Malaga. But it could not be. After 1:30 p.m., it was known that Belgrade would organize the desired event. The Malaga candidacy passed the first, second and third round of votes, but only obtained 70 supports, compared to the 81 achieved by the Serbian proposal. Bariloche (Argentina), Minnesota (USA), Phuket (Thailand) have also lost in this race.

Subsequently, he used his Twitter account to thank all “our rivals”: “An honor to compete with them”. “Thank you very much to those who have worked hard and well for Malaga's candidacy for months, years. We have done an enormous job that will be useful for the city,” he said..