HUNGARY: Police and rioters clash in Budapest during protests by parliamentary opposition and far-right groups calling for Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to resign

A hundred thousand opposition supporters rallied on Thursday to demand Hungary's Socialist prime minister resign during ceremonies to mark the country's national holiday. The protests by the parliamentary opposition and far-right groups marked a renewed campaign to oust Ferenc Gyurcsany, whose admission that he lied about the budget to win elections last year triggered seven weeks of violent demonstrations. A rally by the main opposition Fidesz party attracted around 100,000 people, including radical groups, some of which later clashed with the police. "There is a tension in society and the cause is that they lied and we cannot trust them," said Kalman Hencsei, a 55-year-old teacher who was carrying a Hungarian flag. After the main rally police used tear gas and water cannon against a few hundred people who threw stones. There were no immediate reports of injuries among police or protesters, but witnesses said the protesters had beaten some photographers. "Suddenly around 10 of them approached the photographers, got two on the ground and started kicking them," a Reuters photographer said. At a midday ceremony marking the country's 1848 uprising against Habsburg rule, Budapest mayor Gabor Demszky had to be protected with umbrellas against eggs thrown from a whistling, booing crowd of far-right protesters. "The mercenaries of fear are among us again. It is because of them that many people awaited the anniversary of our most peaceful revolution with fear," said Demszky, a prominent dissident under communism. There were also demonstrations in other major cities. Parliament is still barricaded from last year's protests in which 800 were injured. A heavy police presence kept the demonstrators far away on Thursday. Since winning elections last April, Gyurcsany's government has broken campaign promises by hiking taxes and cutting spending to rein in Hungary's budget deficit which, at 10 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest in the European Union. He has won the approval of investors who have pushed the forint up 10 percent against the euro in the past six months as he is seen to be making the first real attempt to break Hungary's five years of surging budget deficits. But the 45-year-old real estate millionaire has deepened the political divide in Hungary and is blamed by his opponents for creating a climate of fear. The lies tape and the police action last October have also reminded people of the communist roots of the Socialists. "For everything happening here today, the crisis, the street riots, the police brutality, the government alone is responsible," Fidesz leader Viktor Orban told his supporters.

ITN Source | March 16, 2007

Tags:. .opposition. .blamed. .approval. .trust. .immediate