The text of the government decision approved at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting states:
“The Olympic Games are an issue of national importance for Budapest and for Hungary. It has long been recognised that to promote issues of national importance there is a need for consensus. This consensus existed between the country’s leadership and the political parties when the Olympic bid was submitted, and this consensus was expressed in the 92 per cent majority decision of the General Assembly of the Budapest City Council and the 80 per cent majority decision of the National Assembly. In recent months, however, the unity which existed earlier has been dismantled, and the Olympics has become a political party issue. The opposition parties that have backed out of their previous commitment must be held responsible for this”.
The decision also states: “Only those cities where consensus on the issue has emerged and been preserved can claim to have a chance of successfully bidding for and hosting the Olympics. Today this is still the case for Paris and Los Angeles. Since in Budapest the required unity has disintegrated, it is now inconceivable that the city could mount a successful Olympic bid. In this situation the only responsible decision is for Budapest and the Hungarian Olympic Committee to withdraw their bid to host the Olympics”.