Report: Mayor says Budapest may soon decide on Olympic bid

The mayor of Budapest said Friday he may propose withdrawing the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics as soon as next week.

Speaking to news site Index.hu, Istvan Tarlos said he could make his proposal to the Budapest Assembly as soon as Wednesday, once he has confirmed the position of the government and the Hungarian Olympic Committee, both of which said a decision on withdrawing the bid rested with city authorities.

Tarlos’ statement came after the apparent success of a petition launched by opponents of the bid, who presented election officials with forms containing 266,151 signatures seeking a referendum, far more than the minimum of 138,000 valid signatures needed.

Budapest City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

“Over a quarter million signatures have come together so this money is spent on modern hospitals and well-equipped schools instead of on the Olympics,” said Andras Fekete-Gyor, chairman of Momentum Movement, a new political group behind the initiative.

He added it would be “cowardly” if authorities tried to block the referendum or withdrew the candidacy without allowing the referendum to take place.

“We emphatically request Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Mayor Istvan Tarlos to hold the referendum and refrain from blocking it from being held,” Fekete-Gyor said at Budapest City Hall. “Not asking people’s opinions about organizing the Olympics in Hungary was a huge omission on their part.”

Earlier Friday, Tarlos said he would consider withdrawing if enough people backed the referendum but said it was “treason” on part of the opposition to abandon its support for the bid.

The head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee said the decision was up to the Budapest Assembly and blamed the opposition parties, some of which helped gather signatures for the referendum, with splitting Hungarian society.

“With this activity, they have greatly weakened and constantly weaken Budapest’s chances and weaken Hungary’s bid,” committee chairman Zsolt Borkai said in a statement.

The bid has received strong backing from Orban, an avid sports enthusiast, though last year he compared Budapest to David competing against the Goliaths of Los Angeles and Paris, the remaining bidders after Hamburg and Rome withdrew their candidacies.

Fekete-Gyor said election officials had 45 days to review the signatures and determine whether the valid number had been reached. Several earlier attempts to hold similar referendums in Budapest or nationally were either blocked by the courts or abandoned.

The International Olympic Committee will select the host city in September.

Olympics - French language groups protest English-only Olympic slogan

Groups defending the French language are lodging legal protests over the English-only slogan used for Paris’ 2024 Olympic bid. Lawyer Emmanuel Ludot submitted a request with the government’s rights defense authority to suspend use of the slogan “Made for Sharing.” He also submitted a warning to the bid committee that the slogan could violate a law on protecting the French language. Ludot said yesterday that the language groups want the slogan to be in both French and English — or in French only — because “we want them to communicate in the language that is ours.” The Paris bid responded by saying it is “astonished by certain reactions” and maintained its right to “communicate on an international level.” Earlier this month, the Paris bid’s international campaign was projected onto the Eiffel Tower, in English and in French. The slogan “Venez partager” was the French equivalent for “Made for Sharing.” Paris is bidding with Budapest and Los Angeles for the right to host the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city on September 13, in the Peruvian capital Lima. “We are extremely committed to the promotion of our country, of its values, of the French language,” Paris 2024 bid director Etienne Thobois said in a statement. “In order to win, you have to bear in mind that the IOC members who will vote in Lima won’t be French.

“That’s why, like all the organizations who speak to an international audience, we made the choice to express ourselves in French and in English. This enables us to directly share our project as much as possible.”