BUDAPEST – Hungary’s government announced on Wednesday it would withdraw Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games, citing a lack of political and national unity behind the application that it blamed on the opposition.
Bidding alongside powerhouses Los Angeles and Paris, Budapest had been considered a long-shot candidate, pinning its hopes on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Agenda 2020 initiative.
Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos had suggested the city might quit the race after local opponents of the bid last week submitted a quarter of a million signatures in a petition demanding a local referendum in Budapest on the issue.
“For Budapest and Hungary the Olympics is a national issue,” the government said in a resolution published on national news agency MTI.
“In recent months, the earlier unity has broken down and the issue of the Olympics has turned from a national issue into a party issue. Opposition parties are responsible for this, those who backtracked on their earlier decision (to back the bid).”
Wednesdays decision was made at a meeting between Tarlos, Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the chairman of the Hungarian Olympic committee.
The IOC said it would await official notification from the national Olympic committee of the country, the only authority which can officially withdraw a bid.
The Hungarian government’s decision, however, is a further blow to the Olympic bid process with Boston, Hamburg and Rome having pulled out of a race that has now been left with just two cities.
The IOC voted in a string of reforms, named Agenda 2020, two years ago in the hope of making the Games more affordable and attractive for potential host cities. (Reuters)
