We lied to win, says Hungary PM

 

Analysts say Ferenc Gyurcsany may have sanctioned the tape leak

 

Hungary's prime minister has admitted saying that his party lied to the public to win April's general election. Ferenc Gyurcsany's admission came after Hungarian radio played a tape of a meeting he had with his Socialist MPs a few weeks after the election.

On it he says the party had lied to the public and his "boneheaded" government failed to introduce any real policies.

About 3,000 people gathered outside parliament on Sunday calling for him to resign but Mr Gyurcsany has refused.

Economic reforms

The meeting concerned was on 26 May, about a month after the governing coalition had won 210 of the 386 parliamentary seats.

A brief excerpt was played on Hungarian state radio and others appeared on web sites. It is not clear how they were leaked.

If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say

 

 

Ferenc Gyurcsany

 

In the excerpts, Mr Gyurcsany says harsh economic reforms are needed.

"There is not much choice. There is not, because we screwed up. Not a little, a lot. No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have.

"Evidently, we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true.

"You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing. If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?"

Mr Gyurcsany thanks "divine providence, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks" for keeping the economy above board.

In a speech sprinkled with obscenities, he says: "We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening."

Some analysts suggest the leak may be with the prime minister's permission as he posted a full transcript on his own web blog.

Mr Gyurcsany may be trying to emphasise the need for tough reforms, they say. Local elections are set for 1 October.

Mr Gyurcsany went on television on Sunday amid the row and said the "lies" he referred to were those politicians told citizens, who now believed they could have "happiness as a gift".

"We have to stop the deluge of lies which have covered the country for many years," he said.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/19092006/325/hungary-pm-refuses-quit.html

 

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany rejected opposition calls to quit on Tuesday after anti-government riots he called the country's "longest and darkest night" since the end of communism.

 

The riots, in which 150 people were hurt, followed the leak of a tape on Sunday in which Gyurcsany said he and his Socialist party had lied for four years about Hungary's budget in

order to win a general election in April.

 

Thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest late on Monday, occupying and setting fire to the state television building and fighting with riot police in the first such violence since communism collapsed at the end of the 1980s.

 

Higher taxes and fees for healthcare and university tuition had prompted protests before the release of the tape sparked a violent backlash that weakened the Hungarian forint and other currencies across central Europe.

 

"The longest and darkest night of the third Hungarian republic is behind us," Gyurcsany said on state television. "The borderline between freedom of expression and serious disruption has been obscured."

 

There are plans for a big student demonstration on Thursday, seen attracting 10,000 people, which the organisers fear could be hijacked by the opposition.

 

The soaring budget deficit has forced European Union member Hungary to abandon plans to join the euro single currency in 2010, with analysts now saying 2014 was more realistic.

 

On Tuesday, about 500 anti-government demonstrators had gathered outside parliament by midday. Police presence was light and a Reuters correspondent at the scene said the gathering was peaceful.

 

Five parliamentary parties passed a resolution condemning the violence; but political analysts said the involvement of extra-parliamentary far right parties Jobbike and MIEP might diminish the value of the statement.

 

"It is clear that Jobbik wants to use this opportunity as a fast lane to replace MIEP on the political spectrum," said Zoltan Kiszelly a political analyst.

 

A defiant Gyurcsany, facing the biggest challenge in his two-year premiership, told Reuters that resigning was out of the question and he would continue with the tough reforms.

 

"I had spent three minutes on Sunday night thinking about whether I should step down or whether I had a reason to step down, and the conclusion I came to is that absolutely not," Gyurcsany, a 45-year-old millionaire, told Reuters.

 

The protests came two weeks ahead of local elections on October 1 and follow a slump in the ruling Socialist Party's popularity to 25 percent in polls from 40 percent at the election.

 

The main Fidesz opposition urged the prime minister to go amid what it called a "moral crisis" while Ibolya David, leader of the smaller opposition Hungarian Democratic Forum, told Hungarian MTV television: "the prime minister should abandon public life".

 

INVESTOR FEARS

 

However, Gyurcsany, who tried to dampen the furore by saying he was referring to how the entire political class had not been honest over the state's finances for years, said he had the backing of his Socialist Party.

 

"The party is 100 percent behind me, there's not a single dissenting vote...But I admit, in the past four months, I failed to convey the message about the need for reform," he said.

 

The prime minister has said his taped comments to party members were intended to force them to admit to their mistakes and back much needed reform measures.

 

He won April's election partly on a promise of tax cuts but has since imposed tax hikes and benefit cuts worth $4.6 billion (2.4 billion pounds) in 2007 alone to curb Hungary's budget deficit which will surge to 10.1 percent of gross domestic product this year.

 

Investors who hold billions of dollars of Hungarian bonds are worried over the fate of the reforms, which most economists see as the only way to rescue the country's strained finances and keep up hopes of joining the euro zone.

 

On Tuesday, the forint weakened slightly against the euro from five week highs on Monday, and was trading at 273.15 to the euro, down from Monday's close of 270.42.

 

Despite Gyurcsany's reassurances, financial markets remained concerned there would be more riots and the government may still abandon parts of planned fiscal austerity measures.

 

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Hungary's BBB-plus credit rating, which is on a negative outlook, was not under any immediate pressure but that abandoning plans to cut spending could "quite quickly put downward pressure on the rating".

Shame that when our leaders are caught lying most people just say "Yeah, they're politicians, that's what they do".

 

We should take a leaf out of the Hungarian peoples book......and I'm not saying in such a voilent way.....but I'd like to see more of angry response.