Buenos Aires
The President of the Government stated that the presentation of Madrid's bid as the host city for the 2020 Olympic Games is "a national project which the whole country is eager to win" and to which all tiers of government and all political and social groupings are "firmly committed".
He underlined that Madrid is "wholeheartedly committed to hosting" the Olympic Games and Paralympics in 2020 and to that end has presented a "sound, safe and reliable bid as was clearly demonstrated in the report issued by the IOC Evaluation Commission".
Organisational and financial capacity
Pool MoncloaMariano Rajoy affirmed that "our organisational and financial capacity is in no doubt whatsoever". He maintained that Madrid 2020 has "perhaps the most reasonable and responsible financial base of any bid in recent Olympic history, since 80% of the investment necessary to host the Games has already been made and the little left to contribute is fully underwritten by the Government of Spain".
He stressed that Madrid can host the 2020 Olympic Games "without any risk whatsoever to the Olympic movement" and to that end announced a series of data such as that Spain currently heads up the list of countries with the greatest growth in exports in the Eurozone, with forecast growth of 4.1% for this year (the European average standing at only 2%).
He also quoted the current account surplus, the structural adjustments in the public accounts and the tourism figures, with 58 million inbound tourists visiting Spain last year, and 34 million in the first half of 2013 alone, 3.9% up on last year.
Madrid, he stressed, will be an "excellent and hospitable" host city in which the Olympic movement will find a "loyal and faithful partner, fully committed to the values of the Olympic Games and of sport".
The President of the Government concluded his speech by stating "Madrid makes sense".
A major goal for Spain
Pool MoncloaMariano Rajoy underlined, at the press briefing following the bid as host city, that this work has been performed "with great interest, with great care, with a lot of hard work and dedication", and "it has the support of the people of Spain, whatever their views may be".
The President of the Government, in response to questions from journalists, gave a series of reasons why the choice of Madrid as host city for the 2020 Olympic Games is "a major goal for Spain".
He reminded them that the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 gave a major boost to Spanish sport; it allowed Spain to show the world that it was a country capable of organising such an event and resulted in major changes for the city of Barcelona.
At this time, the choice of Madrid for Spain and for the Spanish people would represent "a source of great joy to which we are all entitled", stated Mariano Rajoy.
Pool Moncloa