Momentum Mozgalom, a Hungarian youth movement rather unknown until now, has launched a signature collection campaign in order to force decision-makers to withdraw Budapest’s bid to host the Olympic Games in 2024.

The openly anti-government and anti-establishment movement, founded in 2015 by a group of young Hungarians seeking radical change in the country’s public life, has officially announced its campaign at a press conference at the Blaha Lujza tér on Thursday morning. In the next 30 days they will collect signatures at 25 different locations of the Hungarian capital and they also deploy 600 volunteers to reach more citizens in their homes. András Fekete-Győr, head of the group, said they are against the Olympic bid primarily for financial-economic and environmental reasons.

“Do you agree that the Municipality of Budapest should withdraw its bid from the organization of the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games?”, this would be the referendum question if the enthusiastic movement can deliver 138,000 signatures from Budapest citizens to the Capital’s Election Committee (FVB) in a month’s time. Previously there were other initiatives to hold a referendum on the Olympic bid, however, unlike Momentum’s question these were not approved by the National Election Commission.

According to a fresh survey, nationwide 63 percent of Hungarians are in favour of the bid, but among Budapest citizens it is only 55 percent. However, in age group 18-29, 71% percent of Hungarians said they were supporting Budapest’s Olympic bid. The Hungarian capital faces quite a big challenge as Los Angeles and Paris are also in competition to host the 2024 games. The International Olympics Committee will choose the host city in Lima next September.

via mandiner.hu; photo: nolimpiabp instagram