ROAD TO 2024: Budapest Chairman Expresses Doubts over Bid

Budapest 2024 chairman Balazs Furjes has admitted that the Hungarian bid is faltering, after a petition to force a city-wide referendum attracted over 266,000 signatures.

Budapest Mayor István Tarlós said last week he would meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday to review the city’s bid, after it became clear that national youth organisation Momentum Mozgalom’s ‘NOlimpia’ campaign would attract substantially signatures more than the 138,000 required to engineer a referendum.

Budapest are competing with Paris and Los Angeles to host the 2024 Games, after Hamburg and Rome dropped out of the process. However, the Hungarian capital’s bidding process has been complicated by societal and political disunity over the decision to submit the application.

Budapest 2024 has suspended operations whilst the unrest continues, with a statement released to Hungarian news containing, ”Without unified backing from politics and society at large, Budapest has no chance of winning.” The bid had already suspended their international promotion campaign due to the uncertainty.

The Budapest Election Committee have 45 days to verify the signatures collected by Momentum, with a decision to be made on a referendum based on the findings.