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Hungary to withdraw Budapest's 2024 Olympic bid: government

19:20, Thursday, 23 February, 2017
Hungary to withdraw Budapest's 2024 Olympic bid: government

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.

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