Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi on
Wednesday reiterated her opposition to the capital's bid to host
the 2024 Olympics.
"It's not really a priority for the people of Rome," she
told Euronews in her first interview as mayor.
"They seem to me to be more like construction Olympics than
sporting Olympics...the economic and historic data tells us all
the cities that have hosted them have indebted themselves to the
hilt".
Raggi cited the 1976 Montreal Olympics, whose initial
budget estimate was overrun by 796%.
"With debt of 13 billion euros, Rome can't afford to take
on further debt to build more cathedrals in the desert," Raggi
said.
"I am in favor of sport, but let's begin with city sporting
facilities," she went on.
"Rome has over 160 of them and they are falling to pieces,
and no one ever cared to maintain or renovate them".
The fledgling mayor also said Rome needs policies to
reconnect its impoverished, crime-ridden outlying districts to
its more affluent center.
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