(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 20 FEB - A petition that opposes Budapest's bid to hold the 2024 Olympic Games has gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the matter. The petition was launched by a local political movement called Momentum. Momentum said that it had collected more than 266,000 signatures: nearly twice the number legally required to force a city ballot on the issue. The Budapest Election Office will now rule whether a sufficient number of valid signatures has been collected.

Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos told that if a referendum was called, he would "seriously consider" a proposal to withdraw the bid. "This is a national process and the Ioc will not comment at this stage", an International Olympic Committee spokesperson said. A survey published last week showed 52% of Budapest citizens would vote against the Olympics, up from 31.7% in September.

Dropping the bid would be a disappointment for Prime minister Viktor Orban, who enthusiastically launched the Olympic bid in 2015. Hamburg, Roma and Boston have already abandoned their bids to host the Games.

Hamburg pulled out after a negative referendum result in 2015, while Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi ended her city's bid last year to honour an election promise. Momentum advocates spending the huge budget for the Games on sectors including healthcare and education. If Budapest pulls out, that would leave only Paris and Los Angeles still in the race. The International Olympic Committee is due to announce the 2024 host city in September. (ANSA).