BUDAPEST, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Opposed to their mayor and to the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the citizens of Budapest do not want their city to host the 2024 summer Olympic Games, according to a poll published Thursday in Budapest.
If there was a referendum in Budapest about the 2024 Games, 62.7% of the decided voters amongst the residents of Budapest would be opposed to the Hungarian hosting of the event, against only 24.5% in favor. In the last summer, in August, this rate was 44.3% opposed against 35.6% in favor.
The poll was conducted by one of the major news Hungarian portal index.hu and by the pollster Zavecz research, based on a representative sample of a thousand people.
The change came in spite of a massive public campaign launched by the government, on radio, television, in billboards on the streets and also all over the web.
The organization of the 2024 Games has been recently challenged by a group of young political activists, called "Momentum", who has started a campaign against the Hungarian organization of the Games and has begun to gather signatures in order to call for a referendum over the issue.
Their referendum campaign is called "NOlimpia", and is present mostly on the social networks. They have to gather 138,000 signatures to force a vote and are at more than 110,000 eleven days before their deadline. Their campaign is based on fear of exploding costs and overwhelming corruption.
Hungary is among the bidders to host the Games along with Paris and Los Angeles. The International Olympic Committee will choose the host in Lima, Peru, on September 13.
