BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – The mayor of Budapest says the city assembly will vote Wednesday on a motion to withdraw the city’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
Mayor Istvan Tarlos, Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Zsolt Borkai, the head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, agreed earlier this week on the withdrawal after it became clear that the project would have to face a city-wide referendum initiated by the Momentum Movement, a new political group.
Tarlos says “where referendums were held, with the sole exception of the Winter Games in Vancouver, Olympics were never held.”
The government blamed the opposition parties, which earlier backed the Olympic project, of “dismantling national unity.”
Los Angeles and Paris are the remaining bidders. The International Olympic Committee will decide on the host in September.