Schröder Mulling Summit for Leipzig Olympic Bid
October 29, 2003Advertisement
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder may call a national “Olympics Summit” to help keep Leipzig’s troubled bid for the 2012 summer games on track. German Interior Minister Otto Schily on Wednesday told the newspaper Die Welt that federal and state authorities as well as sporting officials and the business community could take part in a high-profile meeting later this year. Leipzig’s bid has hit a rough patch after it became know that some managers for the city’s Olympic application worked for the infamous East German secret police the Stasi. But Schily, whose ministry is also responsible for sporting events, said it would have been worse if the Stasi revelations came out at a later stage of the bid. “For me the possibility that the facts were made public during the final phase of the candidacy would have been a nightmare,” Schily told the paper.