The Czech News Agency (CTK) reports that Prague Mayor Pavel Bem said Tuesday it was inappropriate to make the outcome of the forthcoming presidential elections conditional on the consent to calling a referendum on Prague’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. He was reacting to a statement by Senator Jana Jurencakova who said, following a Prague authority meeting, that she was withdrawing her pledge to vote for incumbent President Vaclav Klaus in the February elections because of Prague City Hall’s negative position on the referendum.
Bem said, “I firmly believe that Ms. Jurencakova as a senator is aware of the significance of the presidential elections and I think it is inappropriate to link the elections with my consent to the referendum on the Olympics”.
The Czech parliament will start electing a new president on February 8 and Klaus is considered a favourite.
The petition for calling a referendum on Prague’s Olympic bid was launched by the mayors who are members of the Association of Towns and Villages Against Tax Discrimination. They are worried that the possible hosting of the Olympics in Prague would draw money from their budgets to Prague. Prague councillors decided not to submit a bill on the referendum to the Chamber of Deputies. City Hall argued that a referendum could only be held if the consent with hosting the Olympics was in the jurisdiction of the government.
Prague council said that a referendum could be called if the government issued state guarantees to financing the Games. The government gave its legal guarantees for the Prague’s bid on January 9 but stressed in a resolution that no financial guarantees were discussed at the time. By signing the legal guarantees the government has pledged to respect the Olympic charter and to grant free entry and movement to the accredited participants in the Olympic Games.
It also promised to take all necessary measures for Prague and the Czech Olympic Committee to fulfill all their duties at one hundred percent, reports CTK.
