ABC Online
AM - Hungarian PM caught on tape admitting to lying
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1745174.htm]
AM - Wednesday, 20 September , 2006 08:28:00
Reporter: Rafael Epstein
TONY EASTLEY: In Hungary, a secret recording of the Prime Minister admitting he lied to win last April's election has plunged the country into turmoil.
Thousands of protestors have taken to the streets and the Government is today vowing to take what steps are necessary to restore law and order.
Yesterday more than 100 riot police were injured when protesters clashed with them outside state-run TV studios.
Cars were burned, and Budapest's streets littered with broken benches and discarded teargas canisters.
Europe Correspondent Rafael Epstein.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's difficult to overstate the outrage that many in Hungary feel about the secretly recorded words of their Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, speaking to his own MPs at a meeting earlier this year.
FERENC GUYRCSANY (translated): We f…ed it up, not a little bit, but big time. It's obvious that we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half to two years. It was perfectly clear that what we were saying was completely untrue.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The Socialist Prime Minister, who happens to be a millionaire, won the last election, saying he could drastically increase spending and still cut taxes, appealing to those who feel they've being left behind while a small elite enrich themselves.
His brutally honest words reveal what many had long believed.
FERENC GUYRCSANY (translated): We did absolutely nothing for the last four years, nothing, apart from the fact that in the end we finally brought the governing party out of the shit, nothing. If you have to tell the country what we've done in the past four years, what do you say?
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The result was a small riot in the capital of a country that is a member of the European Union.
(Sound of angry protesters)
One hundred and fifty people were injured as the political demonstrators turned violent and clashed with police. They used tear gas and water cannon to keep the demonstrators away from the state television studios.
For some it inspired memories of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. And there's tension here because the Government has ditched its election promises, pledging to do the very opposite of what it promised - to raise not cut taxes, and to cut not increase spending. The reason, half the budget goes on social security, and the deficit is around 10 per cent the size of the economy.
Matyas Eorsi is the Government's spokesman on European Affairs, and he's a member of the ruling Coalition's junior party. He believes the Prime Minister should resist Opposition calls to resign.
MATYAS EORSI: The two big parties were certainly full of lies, not only in the last election campaign, but in all previous election campaigns. Something is shocking here, that the first time the Prime Minister said the truth, and he needed to say the truth because it is time for Hungary to change policies and to face realities.
TONY EASTLEY: Matyas Eorsi, the Government's spokesman on European Affairs.
That report from Rafael Epstein.
Thousands of protestors have taken to the streets and the Government is today vowing to take what steps are necessary to restore law and order.
Yesterday more than 100 riot police were injured when protesters clashed with them outside state-run TV studios.
Cars were burned, and Budapest's streets littered with broken benches and discarded teargas canisters.
Europe Correspondent Rafael Epstein.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: It's difficult to overstate the outrage that many in Hungary feel about the secretly recorded words of their Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, speaking to his own MPs at a meeting earlier this year.
FERENC GUYRCSANY (translated): We f…ed it up, not a little bit, but big time. It's obvious that we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half to two years. It was perfectly clear that what we were saying was completely untrue.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The Socialist Prime Minister, who happens to be a millionaire, won the last election, saying he could drastically increase spending and still cut taxes, appealing to those who feel they've being left behind while a small elite enrich themselves.
His brutally honest words reveal what many had long believed.
FERENC GUYRCSANY (translated): We did absolutely nothing for the last four years, nothing, apart from the fact that in the end we finally brought the governing party out of the shit, nothing. If you have to tell the country what we've done in the past four years, what do you say?
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The result was a small riot in the capital of a country that is a member of the European Union.
(Sound of angry protesters)
One hundred and fifty people were injured as the political demonstrators turned violent and clashed with police. They used tear gas and water cannon to keep the demonstrators away from the state television studios.
For some it inspired memories of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. And there's tension here because the Government has ditched its election promises, pledging to do the very opposite of what it promised - to raise not cut taxes, and to cut not increase spending. The reason, half the budget goes on social security, and the deficit is around 10 per cent the size of the economy.
Matyas Eorsi is the Government's spokesman on European Affairs, and he's a member of the ruling Coalition's junior party. He believes the Prime Minister should resist Opposition calls to resign.
MATYAS EORSI: The two big parties were certainly full of lies, not only in the last election campaign, but in all previous election campaigns. Something is shocking here, that the first time the Prime Minister said the truth, and he needed to say the truth because it is time for Hungary to change policies and to face realities.
TONY EASTLEY: Matyas Eorsi, the Government's spokesman on European Affairs.
That report from Rafael Epstein.
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