POSTED: March 1st 2011
InDepth
Mayor Ude plans to have his way now minority have had their say
KEIR RADNEDGE in Munich / Sports Features Communications
MUNICH, Mar 01: Munich mayor Christian Ude joined hands over the centuries, metaphorically, with Abraham Lincoln as his city’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics engaged with a factor even more complex than the IOC: Democracy.
Any big city hosting an Olympic Games will, if successful, have obtained the unequical support of a vote – even if in ‘only’ a third round - by the International Olympic Committee. But it can never, ever, bring all of its own citizens on board.
As Ude reflected on a "very successful" first day of bid presentations to the IOC evaluation committee, he also had to accept that “you can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
The words which US President Lincoln adapted from poet John Lydgate were illustrated as bid protesters gathered outside the Town Hall. In fact there were barely 50 and their protests were drowned out by the 43 bells accompanying the Glockenspiel figures parading above them in the Rathaus tower.
Protest targets
The protesters mixed opposition to ecological damage, to the city’s wealth and to its social housing fund. Their banners stated: “IOC Go Home!” and “IOC Not Welcome” as well as “IOC profits = Munich debts.”
Most of these accusations Ude derided. He said: “It’s true building the Olympic Village may involve many trees but 95pc of those whose categories are particularly valuable will be preserved . . . the objective of the city is, wherever possible, to preserve existing trees. Also, for every tree chopped down another tree has to be planted - and that’s a given.”
The only building under threat, he said, was an army administrative residence and not, as mistakenly stated, a home for low-income families. That claim, he insisted, was “an impertinent statement.”
All in all, Ude was a happy man. He said: “We prepared meticulously and ensured that every presentation would start and end on time with precise images so every verbal statement was supported visually – not as a computer animation but as real pictures.”
He also praised fellow bid leaders, in particular Olympic veteran Walther Troger and chair Katarina Witt.
One issue Ude did sidestep, that of the ongoing land issues and referendum in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. That, as he intimated, is subject of course to local . . . democracy.
Keywords · Munich · 2018 Winter Olympics · Ude · Lincoln · Ude
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