Krakow mayor Jacek Majchrowski at press conference on Monday: photo - PAP/Stanisław Rozpędzik
According to Civic Platform, the senior coalition partner in the national government, Mayor Jacek Majchrowski - an independent who runs an uneasy coalition with the centre-right party in the local Krakow authority - did not inform them before making the surprise announcement on Monday of holding of a referendum on hosting the games in 2022.
“He has shown that he's not a supporter of the games,” claimed former Krakow mayor and current Civic Platform MP Jozef Lassota in an interview with the Dziennik Polski daily.
“So why should the government reserve money now for investments to accompany the games?” he argued.
“The games are a joint project,” added fellow MP Ireneusz Ras, stressing that while Krakow would be the host city, events will also be hosted on the Polish and Slovakian sides of the Tatra Mountains.
“It's not just the mayor of Krakow involved, but the Polish and Slovakian governments,” he said.
“In December last year we supported Majchrowski [by entering into a coalition] but we didn't give money for a referendum,” another Civic Platform member told the daily.
The referendum itself will cost 1 million zloty [239 euro], but the games themselves are estimated to cost up to 6 billion zloty (1.4 billion euro).
Majchrowski pledged from the outset that he is a supporter of staging the Winter Olympics, part of which would be held in Slovakia, but said on Monday that in spite of positive opinion polls, “in such an important matter, that's not enough, which is why I am calling on the city council to hold a referendum.”
The mayor told Polish Radio's thenews.pl on Monday that the cost of completing sport venues would be less than the National Stadium in Warsaw, built to stage the Euro 2012 football championships.
According to the city, 262 million euro would have to be invested in sport facilities, as opposed to 442 million euro spent on the National Stadium in Warsaw.
Prior to becoming mayor, Jacek Majchrowski was a member of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party. (nh/pg)