Christian Democrats opposed to Prague Olympics if they were to burden state

The coalition Christian Democrats say they are opposed to the plan by the Prague City Hall to host the 2016 Olympic Games. After a party meeting on Friday evening, the leader of the Prague branch Marian Hosek said his party believed the event would be megalomaniac and would imply a deficit in the Prague municipal budget as well as burden the whole state budget. Christian Democrat chairman, Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development Minister Jiri Cunek indicated that he shared this opinion. The idea to host the Olympic Games in Prague is being promoted by the Prague City Hall and Mayor Pavel Bem of the Civic Democrats.

Prague officially joined the battle for organising the 2016 Olympics in September when Mr Bem, along with the Czech Olympic Committee chairman Milan Jirasek, signed a letter declaring Prague's interest in this respect. An economic study has preliminarily put the costs of the possible Olympics at 490 billion crowns.