Second night of violence in Budapest
Wednesday, 20 Sep 2006 08:49
Yesterday's protest began outside Budapest's parliament building
Police and demonstrators clashed for a second night in the Hungarian capital Budapest last night, following Monday's riots in which 150 people were reportedly injured during protests over a leaked recording.
In the recording, the country's prime minister admitted that he had lied about the economy in order to win April's general election.
Amid ongoing calls for prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to resign, a small group of protestors last night broke away from the main crowd outside Hungary's parliament building as police on horseback tried to prevent their attempts to reach the headquarters of the ruling socialist party.
Police used tear gas and water cannons on stone-throwing protestors who managed to reach the building in Republic Square, with reports claiming that several people were injured during the clashes.
A number of streets in Budapest's city centre have been blocked off by riot police following yesterday's motion passed by the Hungarian parliament condemning Monday night's protests and a pledge by the country's prime minister to crack down on further such violence.
Yesterday, Mr Gyurcsany rejected calls by the country's opposition parties for him to resign following the anti-government demonstrations, telling the Reuters news agency that his party was "100 per cent" behind him and vowing to press ahead with controversial fiscal reforms.
The prime minister's economic rulings have seen taxes rise and public spending fall in a bid to address Hungary's massive 10.1 per cent budget deficit – the highest of any country in the EU.
Referring to Monday night's riots during an earlier address on state television, Mr Gyurcsany declared that Hungary's "longest and darkest night" since the end of communism in the 1980s was already in the country's past.
But last night's scenes of violence suggest that anger amongst the Hungarian people over a leaked recording in which their prime minister admitted that his government had lied about the state of the economy, has yet to subside.
In the tape, made during a private meeting with socialist MPs just weeks after the party was returned to power in April, Mr Gyurcsany acknowledged that he and his government had "lied in the morning and in the evening" during four years of rule from 2002 to 2006 and that only "divine providence, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks" had kept the country's economy afloat.
Mr Gyurcsany's party, accused by the opposition of presiding over an economy that was on the verge of collapse during April's campaign, secured victory on the back of pledges to implement tax cuts, but has since announced $4.6 billion (£2.4 billion) of tax rises and benefit cuts.
With just two weeks to go before local elections in Hungary, opinion polls show Mr Gyurcsany's socialist party and their liberal coalition partners trailing the country's main centre-right opposition party, Fidesz.
