Raggi opposed to 2024 Olympics in Rome

(ANSA) - Rome, June 22 - 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.