"We have nothing against sport but it must not become a pretext for further pouring of concrete on the city". Virginia Rages definitively closes the door to the Rome 2024 Olympics, after deserting (or in any case showing up late enough to cancel the meeting) the appointment with the president of Coni Giovanni Malagò to discuss the Eternal City's candidacy for the Summer Games scheduled in 8 years.
"No to the Olympics of bricks and lobbies", said the mayor of Rome at the press conference, recalling that "almost 70% of Romans do not want the Games" in allusion to the fact that with that percentage the citizens voted for her in the run-off with the Pd candidate Roberto Giachetti. The 5 Star Movement had made the No to the Olympics one of the strong points of the electoral campaign: "The Olympics are a dream that then becomes a nightmare", added Virginia Raggi, citing the latest edition of Rio 2016 as an example, which "not it was a success for the population”.
“Let's not mortgage the future of Rome and Italy: with the Olympics we are asked to take on other debts and the Romans and the Italians are still paying the debts of Rome '60. It is irresponsible to say yes to this candidacy", also said the exponent of the 5 Star Movement who gave the following reasons for the delay which aroused the wrath of Malagò: "I had a setback but just as I was arriving the president he preferred to leave”. According to the journalists present, the delay would have been 35-40 minutes with respect to the appointment, initially set for 14,30pm. However, the clash is not over: Coni had already made it known that it was asking the Municipality of Rome for a compensation of 20 million in case of No.
A few minutes later it was Malagò who spoke: "I'm sorry that Mayor Raggi doesn't remember, and I don't want to think that he did it in bad faith, that Rome applied only after the IOC changed the rules of candidacies, with the cost reduction".
The comment of the President of Coni on the motion with which the Giunta proposes the “no” to the Council is harsh: “It is embarrassing, I advise the mayor Raggi not to present it. The motion speaks of cities that have never been candidates. You need to know what you're talking about first, otherwise you'll make a bad impression. How can you not know? Hamburg has never been a candidate, neither has Boston, it's embarrassing".
On the debts relating to Rome '60, Malagò replied: "I called Silvia Scozzese, Rome's debt commissioner and asked her if it is true that Rome has debts of 2 billion to be charged for the Rome 1960 games. She sent me an email, which I submit to the records, and you will discover that that is an absolute falsehood. These are commercial debts, expropriations for some houses in the Olympic village for a few hundred thousand euros. This is demagoguery, populism. This is how you disrespect the whole sports world".
