Eduardo González
The declaration as “country project”, the appointment of an ambassador in Special Mission, the mobilization of the Spanish Embassies in the world and the foreign Embassies accredited in Spain and the numerous bilateral and international steps have not been enough for Malaga to fulfill its dream of hosting the International Exposition of 2027, which will finally be held in Belgrade.
Paris hosted yesterday the 172nd General Assembly of the International Bureau of Expositions (Bureau International des Expositions, BIE), in which the 170 member states of this organization had to choose by secret ballot (one vote per country) among the five cities aspiring to host the International Exposition: Malaga, Belgrade (Serbia), Phuket (Thailand), San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina) and Bloomington (United States).
To put more pressure, the Andalusian city was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares; the recently re-elected mayor, Francisco de la Torre (only four days after the official start of his new mandate); the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno; and the president of the Provincial Council, Francisco Salado.
Finally, and after four rounds of voting, the majority of member states voted in favor of Serbia’s project to organize the next Expo, which, under the theme Play for humanity: sport and music for all, will be held between May 15 and August 15, 2027. “Congratulations, Belgrade. Thank you to all our rivals: an honor to compete with them. And many, many thanks to those who have worked hard and well for Malaga’s bid for months, for years. We have done a huge job that will be useful for the city,” said De la Torre via his Twitter account.
Member state representatives chose the host country by secret electronic ballot. As no candidate received the two-thirds majority required to win in the first three rounds, Serbia and Spain moved on to a final round, where a simple majority of the votes cast was required. Belgrade came first and Malaga second in the four ballots: 54 votes to 42 in the first, in which Argentina was eliminated; 69 to 48 in the second, in which Thailand fell; 74 to 53 in the third, in which the United States was eliminated; and 81 votes for Serbia and 70 for Spain in the fourth and final ballot.
Expos are global events that explore a specific theme. Among the different categories of Expos, Specialty Expos (such as the one Malaga wished to host and Belgrade will eventually organize) are designed to respond to a precise challenge facing humanity and can take place in the interval between two World Expos. Specialty Expos are limited in terms of duration, lasting up to three months, and space, with an exhibition area of no more than 25 hectares. The most recent Specialty Expo, Expo 2017 Astana, took place in Kazakhstan’s capital city under the theme Future Energy and received nearly four million visitors. If successful, Malaga’s exhibition, The Urban Age: Towards the Sustainable City, would have been held from June 5 to September 5, 2027, and could have attracted up to 1.8 billion euros in investment.
A “country project” with a disappointing result
In a joint press conference following the result of the voting, the mayor of Malaga highlighted “the work done from the candidacy” and confirmed that some of the works planned for Malaga 2027 will also be carried out. “We have been very close'”, he stressed. For his part, Albares highlighted “the strength of the candidacy” of Malaga and said that, despite the defeat, “the name of Malaga and its potential to continue growing in different areas remains”. Likewise, Juanma Moreno praised “the coordinated work of all the administrations involved in Málaga2027” and warned that we must continue working together to “achieve more ambitious goals”. Finally, the president of the Provincial Council alluded to the Expo slogan and said that “Malaga must continue working towards sustainability”.
Despite the good words, it is clear that the defeat of Malaga is a great disappointment for all parties involved, starting with the Government, which had assumed the Expo27 as a “country project”. Malaga’s candidacy – initially launched by the City Council with the support of the Andalusian Regional Government and the Provincial Council – was officially presented a year ago by the Government before the 170th General Assembly of the BIE.
Throughout this period, Albares mobilized “all the ambassadors of Spain” to defend the candidacy, took advantage of his participation in several international meetings (the G-20 meeting in New Delhi or the UN General Assembly in New York) to request the vote of his counterparts, appointed Juan José Escobar to the post of Ambassador-at-Large for the Expo Malaga 2027 Candidacy and asked for the support of the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Spain. In September 2022, King Felipe VI, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and José Manuel Albares defended Malaga’s suitability to members of a BIE mission visiting Spain to evaluate the Andalusian city’s candidacy.
