Munich's Olympic candidacy: infrastructure and political dynamics

Munich's selection as a candidate does not mean that the city is certain of winning games in 2036, 2040 or 2044. The IOC doesn't want to decide where it will award the 2036 Games for three years at the earliest. There is no schedule at all for the following games. At the moment it seems unlikely that Germany will host the event in ten years, but the following applies: Munich has made itself available for 2036, so the city must be ready then.

This means that it must tackle and accelerate its biggest Olympic projects now: the construction of an Olympic village with apartments for more than 10,000 athletes and coaches, appropriate transport connections with roads, subway and tram, and the finalization of the second S-Bahn main line (which is currently still planned for the end of the 1930s). Not to forget the construction of temporary sports facilities.

In this respect, Munich's election is certainly a boost for the plans of the new mayor Dominik Krause from the Greens: the Olympic candidacy should give further impetus to the spirit of optimism that he created when he took office in May. Just as SPD mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel once did when he brought the Olympics to Munich for the first time in the mid-1960s and in the process made the city fit for modernity.

Of course, the Olympics are also a project of the Free State of Bavaria and its Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). This means that Munich's Mayor Krause will certainly be able to make money available to support infrastructure measures in the next few years, even if the city ultimately doesn't get the games.

The fact that the CSU man Söder and the Green Krause have joined forces when it comes to the Olympic bid and have gotten along surprisingly well so far could also have an impact on politics in the Free State beyond the Olympics. The specter of the Greens, which Söder has often and willingly conjured up in the past, may lose his fright when he realizes that you can also work reliably with Green politicians - as long as you have a common goal. And that's what they'll have for the next few years.