- The Government of Navarra has put the circuit of Los Arcos on sale with the aim of eliminating once and for all the infrastructures in which the money is constantly lost. Prospective buyers have a purchase option until July 1.
The circuit and cost of the infrastructure started in 2010 was EUR 70 million, taking into account the interest on loans. The first year already had a loss of EUR 2.6 million. Miguel Sanz, then President of the Government of Navarra (UPN), warned in Parliament that the circuit would not give money, but that it would benefit the region.
At first the entrepreneur Jesús Samaniego had to start his journey. He was the owner of the land to be built, but he was thinking of an initial budget of EUR 6 million. The UPN government proposed a more ambitious project, with a budget of EUR 22 million.
In view of the change in the project, Samaniego regressed in the project and the Government of Navarra advanced with 95% of the circuit. The Foral Government awarded the Samaniego company the construction of the circuit without taking it out to public tender. In 2021, the House of Auditors of Navarre issued a report on the management of the circuit indicating that the Government of Navarre provided the entrepreneur with a favourable treatment.
The public company that manages the circuit, NICDO, has already done everything possible to get rid of the racing enclosure and in 2013 rented it to the company Los Arcos Motosport, but it left the management of the circuit in 2019, and NICDO had to take it again. In 2021, the circuit suffered losses of 1.7 million. All these losses have so far had to be covered by the Government of Navarra.
Fruit of UPN’s exaggerations
In the 2000s, UPN and the PSN promoted several pharaonic projects throughout Navarre, and the circuit of Los Arcos must also be framed in this context of construction. The well-known book El banquete perfectly explains the time of the gigantic projects and businesses that UPN and PSN promoted, in most cases through the disappeared Caja Navarra.
Among them was, for example, the project to build a giant park on Mt. Ezkaba, costing 119 million euros and which in the book is called the delirium of Ezcaba. Many such projects were carried out, some of which are still ongoing, such as the construction of the Salesians of Pamplona, or the part of the TAV of Navarra which is still under construction.