HUNGARY: Opposition supporters clash with police outside TV station

Police and protesters clashed in Budapest on Monday after thousands of Hungarians marched to demand Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany resign over a leaked admission that he had lied to win April's election. It was the first such street violence since the fall of communism and establishment of democracy in the late 1980s. Scores of protesters hurled bottles and cobblestones at riot police, who fired teargas to stop them forcing their way into the offices of state television to publicise their protest. "There was some teargas before the initial attack, now it is stalemate," said a Reuters correspondent at the scene. Protestors shouted "56" in memory of Hungary's failed uprising against Soviet rule in October 1956. The protests were sparked by a leaked tape of the prime minister saying he and his government had lied about the budget to hold onto power. A second Reuters correspondent said that around a dozen protestors had tried to force an entrance to the TV station and some were using flagstones to attack the building. Some 10,000 people had earlier gathered at parliament to demand the Socialist premier's resignation. While the Socialist Party rallied behind its prime minister, who faces his biggest challenge since taking office in 2004, Hungary's president said Gyurcsany had created a "moral crisis" and opposition parties said he should go. The main opposition party Fidesz said it would boycott parliament for a day on Tuesday to protest against what it said were the lies of the Socialist-led government. "We will not go, it is decided. How do we know they will tell the truth?" parliamentary faction leader Tibor Navraciscs said. The first poll on the issue found Hungarians divided. Forty seven percent said the prime minister should stay and 43 percent thought he should resign, Szonda Ipsos's snap poll of 500 people on Monday found. "We are here because we would very much like a change of government through new elections," said protestor Ibolya, 44, who declined to give her surname. Gyurcsany received a unanimous endorsement on Monday from Socialist MPs as prime minister and for his policies to cut Hungary's budget deficit, which at 10.1 percent of gross domestic product is the biggest in the European Union. The opposition charges that Gyurcsany, who became the first prime minister since communism ended in 1989 to retain power in an election, campaigned on promises of tax cuts, only to impose $4.6 billion of tax rises and benefit cuts after he won power. A tape, leaked on Sunday, recorded Gyurcsany appealing to his party after the election to change its ways, saying: "We lied in the morning and in the evening" and that the government had achieved nothing in office apart from winning the election. Gyurcsany was criticised by the main opposition party Fidesz and by President Laszlo Solyom, an independent political figure. "No goal can justify that anybody risk faith in democracy and even less that he does it consciously," Solyom said on Monday, adding "I expect the prime minister to admit that". Political analysts and constitutional experts say that Solyom has no power to dismiss the government and Gyurcsany's Socialists were resolute in their support after meeting the prime minister following his return from a trip to Russia. "With a unanimous vote the party caucus decided to support the continuation of our policies and the prime minister who has been carrying out these policies," Socialist Party caucus leader Ildiko Lendvai said. Party President Istvan Hiller said earlier that there was complete backing for Gyurcsany and that his policies to cut the budget deficit, which include unpopular tax rises and charges for healthcare and university tuition, would be carried out. Hiller's comments triggered a rally in the Hungarian forint which had sold off on concerns plans to cut the budget deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP by 2009 would be watered down. The forint, one of the most vulnerable currencies in the world after five years of broken budget promises, rose in value to 270.42 to the euro on Monday, up 1.22 percent from its lows. Most political analysts believe Gyurcsany will survive unless there is a Socialist Party coup as the opposition has been fatally damaged by two successive election defeats.

ITN Source | September 19, 2006

Tags:. .snap. .healthcare. .triggered. .riot. .gross