Rome’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games in risk

Rome’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games could be in risk, as Virginia Raggi elected new mayor of the city of Rome, a candidate who campaigned as an opponent of the project.

Raggi is a member of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement party, and during her campaign for the position, outlined her opposition to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid. She defeated a candidate from the Democratic party of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who has been a strong supporter of the bid. The new mayor can now opt out of the bid but it seems more likely that she will call a referendum and leave it up to the public to decide – the Italian Radical Party has already been pushing for the vote and is in the process of collecting the required 30,000 signatures.