Hungarian firefighters examine burnt cars abandoned outside the state television headquarters in Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has rejected calls to resign and threatened a crackdown on any repeat of riots that left 150 injured in the worst street violence in Budapest since the fall of Communism.
(AFP) |
Hungary's prime minister has rejected calls to resign and threatened a crackdown on any repeat of riots that left 150 injured in the worst street violence in Budapest since the fall of Communism.
A defiant Ferenc Gyurcsany said he had ordered police "to use all means" to maintain order after a night of pitched battles between police and demonstrators enraged by the socialist premier's admission that he had lied about the state of the economy to win re-election.
"Taking to the streets: it is not a solution, but a source of conflicts and of crisis," said Gyurcsany, while ruling out any prospect of his stepping down from office.
"Our duty is to ease this conflict and prevent a crisis," he added.
Despite the zero-tolerance warning, hundreds of protestors gathered Tuesday morning outside the country's parliament, carrying a symbolic coffin with a placard that read: "We will bury the government of Gyurcsany! No resurrection for you".
A spokesman for the demonstrators, Andras Takacs, said demonstrations would continue at least till Thursday, when a march by students against university fees has long been planned.
In the most violent protests since the collapse of Communism in 1989, thousands of demonstrators went on the rampage late Monday, storming and briefly occupying the state television headquarters in the city's Szabadsag Square.
Initially overwhelmed police used teargas and water cannon to break up the protests, which left more than 150 injured. One policeman had to undergo surgery for a serious head injury.
The riots followed the broadcast on public radio over the weekend of a leaked tape-recording of a closed-door discussion between Gyurcsany and his deputies in May.
In the recording, Gyurcsany candidly admitted the government had accomplished nothing and "lied all along for the past 18 months -- two years" about the dire state of the national economy and secret plans to introduce an unpopular austerity programme after elections in April.
"We did everything to keep that secret to the end of the electoral campaign," he said on the obscenity-laced tape.
Gyurcsany's Socialist-Liberal coalition easily won the April poll.
The 44-year-old prime minister acknowledged Sunday that the recording -- leaked by an undisclosed source -- was authentic.
In a bid to address the crisis, he called a meeting of the national security cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the situation, adding parliament was to meet in emergency session later in the day.
At the same time, he stressed that the government would "continue and accelerate" the austerity reforms -- including higher taxes and lower subsidies -- launched after the election win to reduce the budget deficit and meet strict EU criteria for adopting the euro currency.
Demonstrators, meanwhile, vowed to keep up the pressure on the prime minister.
"I am protesting because I do not like Gyurcsany," said Tamas Pikarczyk, a 24-year-old second-hand car dealer who spent the night at the television centre. "I was outraged by what he said, and I do not want a man like that to represent me or my country."
Police were out in force in Szabadsag Square where burned out cars, torn-up benches and discarded tear-gas canisters bore witness to the violence of the night before.
Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei indicated that he had offered his resignation early Tuesday, but that the prime minister had refused.
The protests were "not a political demonstration. This was a criminal action," he said.
"The police expected a peaceful demonstration and were not ready for such aggression," he added.
The charismatic Gyurcsany, a former communist who made a fortune in business before turning to politics, said on his Internet blog after his comments became known that he regretted his words.
He wrote that he acted out of his "passion" for the country and his desire to push through the needed economic reforms.
On Monday Socialist members of Parliament voiced unanimous backing for the prime minister and his programme.
But with municipal elections set for October 1, polls show the opposition Fidesz party of former prime minister Viktor Orban ahead with 34 percent of voter support compared with 23 percent for the ruling coalition.
