(ATR) The Budapest City Assembly is moving on from its Olympic project after political opposition gathered a rush of support to end the city’s bid.
The assembly made its final decision on Wednesday and has asked the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) to notify the International Olympic Committee of the city’s withdrawal.
A spokesperson for Budapest 2024 tells Around the Rings the bid does not know when the MOB will notify the IOC and bring an official end to the bid. Budapest 2024 is not offering comment regarding the bidding process or its experience at this time.
The IOC could also not confirm whether the MOB has already submitted the withdrawal. A spokesperson provided the same statement offered when the city assembly vote was clearly a formality.
"It is disappointing that this decision had to be taken – the candidature committee had presented an excellent project, which has built on the reforms contained in Olympic Agenda 2020," the statement reads. "It also demonstrated that smaller cities and smaller countries can stage the Olympic Games in a feasible and sustainable way."
The IOC says it is unfortunate the candidature "was overtaken by local politics", notably a youth political force known as Momentum that collected more than 250,000 signatures on a petition to hold a referendum on the bid.
Budapest and Hungarian leaders criticized the referendum initiative as political sleight of hand to gain momentum ahead of Hungary’s Parliamentary elections next year. Rather than let the referendum move forward as planned, the leaders chose to preemptively end the bid.
"It was not our idea to host the Olympic Games in Budapest," Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos told the city council, according to Reuters. "We started it at the MOB's request.
"But what the [opposition] has done about the Olympics is an outright failure of character. They just created this circus to score political points."
The IOC will now have one less evaluation commission trip to make between April and May with Los Angeles and Paris the only two cities remaining in the race to host the 2024 Olympic Games.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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