Anti-government protests continue in Hungary

20/09/2006

Shunning protesters' calls for his resignation, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany vowed to stay on Tuesday and continue painful reforms.

(AP, Reuters, FT, Bloomberg, BBC, CNN, Euronews, Budapest Business Journal - 20/09/06; AFP, BBC, Euronews, EUpolitix - 19/09/06)

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany (centre) attends a parliament meeting in Budapest on Tuesday (19 September). He has rejected calls to resign. [Getty Images]

Police and rioters clashed for the second consecutive night in Budapest on Tuesday (19 September) in Hungary's worst outburst of violence since the fall of communism in 1989. The unrest erupted after a public radio station Sunday broadcast a leaked tape on which the prime minister told members of his Socialist Party that his government had been misleading people about the state of the national economy in order to win re-election in April.

"We screwed it up, big time," Gyurcsany was heard saying on the tape. "No country in Europe has been so blatant. We obviously lied throughout the past year and a half, two years. And meanwhile, we didn't do a thing for four years … instead, we lied morning, noon and night."

On Monday, some 10,000 people gathered in a peaceful rally in front of parliament, calling for Gyurcsany's resignation. The protest turned violent later that evening after hundreds of demonstrators stormed and looted part of the state television building. According to Reuters, more than 150 people were injured.

New clashes between police and rioters then broke out on the streets of Budapest early Wednesday. Nearly 100 arrests were made, and 60 people reportedly were injured. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators.

On Tuesday, all five political parties represented in parliament, including the main centre-right opposition FIDESZ party, condemned the violence. However, FIDESZ leader Viktor Orban expressed sympathy for the demonstrators and joined their calls for Gyurcsany's resignation. With Hungary scheduled to hold municipal elections in less than two weeks, he said, the upcoming vote would represent a referendum about the tough economic reforms on the government's agenda.

"If the results of the 1 October vote show that Hungarian people reject the package, then the prime minister must go and take the package with him," Bloomberg news agency quoted Orban as saying at a press conference Tuesday. "The outcry is justified, but it's not cars, policemen and the TV building that are responsible."

Gyurcsany, meanwhile, made it clear he was not planning to yield to public pressure and resign, pledging instead to continue with the needed, but unpopular, austerity measures.

In the fifth year of over-runs, Hungary's budget deficit is expected to exceed 10% of GDP this year, the highest in the EU, standing well above the 3% ceiling set for countries aspiring to join the Euro zone.

The government has raised taxes and lowered subsidies in a bid to reduce the record public deficit. Additional planned measures are expected to lead to layoffs, as well as direct fees in the health sector and in higher education.