Petition could once again derail Budapest Olympic bid after threat of 2024 referendum ignited change in the Olympic bid process

The NOlimpia campaign collects over 266 thousand signatures against Budapest 2024 Olympic bid (NOlimpia Facebook Photo)

Hungary’s fledgling bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games might need to win a national referendum if it hopes to compete against several international competitors to stage the events in Budapest.

The leader of the nation’s Momentum Movement political party Márton Tompos announced on social media channels Wednesday that he has submitted a referendum question, insisting that Hungary cannot host the Games without approval from the people. The centrist party rose to national prominence in 2017 when it emerged as NOlimpia, an organization with the sole purpose of petitioning for a referendum to question the 2024 Olympic bid in the capital. The campaign was a resounding success, collecting enough signatures to force an unplanned referendum and eventually pushing political stakeholders to cancel the bid and avoid the embarrassment of losing the contentious vote.

Momentum registered as a political party in 2017, leveraging the success of NOlimpia to tackle other government issues. It has since grown, winning seats in the National Assembly and European Parliament.

“We would like to put an end to the issue of organizing the Olympics once and for all. We want, if this country wants to submit any Olympic bid, a referendum should be held first. It’s a decision at a level that we have to make together,” Tompos said in a video posted on social media.

He added “as long as there is not an adequate number of doctors and teachers in the country, there is not adequate drinking water everywhere … it is completely wrong to dream of hosting the Olympics.”

The announcement should worry bid organizers and the Hungarian Olympic Committee (HOC).

The overwhelming success of the 2017 petition to force a vote on the 2024 Games was unexpected, even to the organizers. A co-founder of the group then told GamesBids.com “the number of signatures was certainly surprising,  I thought, we’ll make some public appearances, maybe like 30 minutes or so, and compared to that it’s been crazy.”

The group had expected 10 or 20 thousand signatures which would have fallen short of its goal, but they instead collected over 266,000 after opposition to the Games grew.

The impact of that petition on the Olympic Movement cannot be underestimated. After Budapest dropped out of the bid, the dominos began to fall leading to a complete overhaul of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) site selection process. With Hungary out of the picture only bids from Paris and Los Angeles remained, and the IOC opted to award the Games to both, in 2024 and 2028 respectively, through a tripartite agreement rather than risking the loss of another qualified candidate.

Two years later the IOC changed the bid process to eliminate the risk of potential hosts dropping out, launching a less formal and more opaque selection strategy. Now interested parties negotiate behind closed doors and only preferred candidates are selected by the IOC Executive Board for general membership election.

Brisbane, Australia was the first city elected under this new process and is set to host in 2032.

Politicians in Hungary announced support for a 2036 bid, the next Games available, in August with municipal and national leaders backing plans. But the Mayor said a bid can only move forward if Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban increases funding to the Capital that has been withheld since his opposition party took over city council.

On Tuesday IOC Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. who is currently among seven candidates seeking the IOC Presidency said Budapest was qualified to host a future Olympic Games but noted that the competition for 2036 would be challenging.

The IOC has said the number of places interested in hosting the 2036 Games number in the double digits. They include Istanbul in Türkiye, India, Egypt, Cape Town in South Africa, Santiago in Chile and Seoul in South Korea. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are known to be interested as well but no formal announcements have been made.

Germany, Poland and United Kingdom have shown interest in bidding for the 2040 edition.

There is no set deadline for the awarding of the Games, but one or more qualified candidates could be selected as early as next year.

Hungary is the most successful Summer Olympics nation never to have hosted the Games.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}