Bad weather threatens for Budapest's bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Presented as solid and supported by the political authorities, the project could well have to overcome a major obstacle: a referendum.
Marton Tompos, the leader of the opposition political party Momentum, announced on social media that his movement will try to force a popular consultation to decide whether the Hungarian capital should enter the battle.
Credible? Surely. The Olympic movement has not forgotten: Marton Tompos is not at his first coup de force. His party, Momentum, was created after 2017 on the foundations of the NOlimpia campaign, launched by a group of opponents to counter Budapest's bid for the Summer Games in 2024.
Active and highly organized, it had launched a petition to demand a referendum. The initiative quickly gained momentum, collecting more than 260.000 signatures. Enough to encourage the project's leaders, including the head of the candidacy committee Balázs Fürjes (now an IOC member), to give up.
The referendum was no longer necessary. Budapest 2024 withdrew from the race, opening the door to a double vote 2024-2028 and a sharing of the Games between Paris and Los Angeles.
Since then, Marton Tompos has gained influence in Hungarian politics. His opposition party, Momentum, won about ten seats in the National Assembly in the 2022 parliamentary elections. It also won seats in the European Parliament.
A declared opponent of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Marton Tompos has understood that the question of an Olympic bid remains, in Hungary as almost everywhere else, a political subject. He intends to use it.
« On behalf of the @Momentum movement, I have submitted a referendum question on not being able to decide on an Olympic bid without consulting the people, he explained on his Instagram account. This matter must be put to an end once and for all, because unfortunately, after 2017, the government is still dreaming of hosting the Olympic Games in Budapest in 2024. Since there are not enough doctors and teachers in the country, and there is no drinking water everywhere (…), it is absurd to dream of hosting the Olympic Games. »
At this stage of the process, it is far too early to rule out Budapest from the race for the 2036 Summer Games. Anything can still happen, especially after the departure of Thomas Bach and the arrival of a new president at the helm of the IOC.
Above all, the new method of designating the host city, with a dialogue phase with unclear outlines and content, opens the field to all scenarios. From now on, everything happens in Lausanne. In the absence of an old-style candidacy campaign, opponents often lack the leverage to try to undo the project.
However, the word referendum is never welcome when associated with an Olympic bid. The Swiss, Germans and Canadians can testify to this.
Since withdrawing from the race for the 2024 Games, Budapest has not given up on its sporting ambitions. The Hungarian capital has even established itself as one of the strongholds of the movement. It organized the World Athletics Championships in 2023. It hosted the World Swimming Championships in 2017 and 2022, and will host them again in 2027. Budapest also convinced World Aquatics to leave Lausanne to set up its headquarters on its territory.
