Protesters riot after prime minister admits to lying

[stu]

Hungarian police clashed with protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, yesterday in the first such violence since the fall of communism in the late 1980s.

 

Last night there were reports that the state television station had been set on fire. Scores of protesters hurled bottles and cobblestones at riot police, who fired teargas in return. The violence in Budapest followed the release of a recording in which Mr Gyurcsany said his administration had lied to win re-election in April polls.

 

On the tape, recorded during a meeting in May but broadcast on Hungarian television and radio on Sunday, Mr Gyurcsany told a group of MPs from his Socialist party that they had "screwed up".

 

"It's obvious that we lied [about the state of the economy] throughout the last year and a half, two years," he said. In an expletive-riddled recording, Mr Gyurcsany said: "No European country has done anything as boneheaded as we have."

 

He went on to admit that it was only due to "divine providence, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks" that the economy had not collapsed.

 

The tape broadcast prompted thousands of people to demonstrate outside parliament. President Laszlo Solyom said the prime minister had thrown the country into a "moral crisis" and imperilled people's trust in democracy. He joined the calls for Mr Gyurcsany to resign. The main opposition party, Fidesz, said its MPs would boycott parliament for a day in protest.

 

Mr Gyurcsany's comments triggered market concerns that his government might be forced to abandon unpopular reforms designed to rescue the country from economic crisis. Hungary has the largest budget deficit in the EU. It is expected to reach 10.1 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with the government's pre-election target of 4.7 per cent.

 

Admitting that the tape was authentic, Mr Gyurcsany said he had intended to warn people about the extent of the country's problems and to "prepare Hungary to face up to the past many, many years," referring to the 16 years since it returned to democracy.

 

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