He said in principle he had no objections to a referendum about withdrawing Budapest’s bid to host the Olympics in 2024 but the timing of the initiative is not justifiable.

It is highly unlikely that any genuine concern justifying a referendum emerged a year and a half after the decision was made to submit a bid, he said.

“I have no problems with the referendum but I suspect an undeclared motivation behind it on the part of the initiators,” he said.

Hungary would not have to pay for all the costs of hosting the games because the International Olympic Committee would “contribute large sums to it”, he said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Marjai János