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Hungarian PM says his government lied to win

"We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening. ... We screwed up. Not a little, a lot. No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have."

Ferenc Gyurcsany, Hungarian prime minister

Hungary's prime minister on Sunday admitted he told a Socialist Party meeting in May his government had lied about its record to win April's election, triggering a protest demanding that he resign.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's comments were made at a closed party meeting and posted on Sunday on Hungarian radio's Web site (www.radio.hu) and then in full on Gyurcsany's own Web site (www.amoeba.hu).

"We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening," he told the meeting in a 25-minute speech peppered with obscenities.

About 3,000 protesters shouting "resign, resign" had gathered outside parliament by midnight after the prime minister's comments were made public.

Gyurcsany told the party meeting that the government would have no choice but to reform in its second term after what he said were lies that had characterized 18 months of his premiership and the four-year Socialist rule from 2002.

"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," Gyurcsany said in the recording. "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 give me a significant government measure of which we could be proud [in four years] beyond that we have held on to power," he said.

The government campaigned promising tax cuts, but has since imposed US$4.6 billion in tax rises and spending cuts, and said the budget deficit this year would be 10.1 percent of gross domestic product, almost double what it promised in the election.

The tape was made public and a transcript later posted on the prime minister's Web site two weeks before local elections on Oct. 1, which the opposition Fidesz party is seeking to turn into a referendum on the legitimacy of the government.

Fidesz said it had not organized the protest and would comment on Monday, although its leader Viktor Orban said this week he would not be surprised if there was civil disobedience.

A snap poll on TV2 television station on Sunday showed 72 percent of the 65,000 people who had sent SMS messages believed he should resign, but the prime minister refused to quit.

"I will not resign," Gyurcsany told ATV television station.

Political analysts said they did not believe he would resign or that the tax rises and benefit cuts would be reversed, but they said Gyurcsany's credibility had been badly damaged.

They said that Gyurcsany, who wants to become Socialist Party president, may fail to win backing to take the presidency and that the opposition would win the local elections and be able to renew its challenge after two demoralizing defeats.

"Fidesz has received a great chance to win the local elections," said Zoltan Kiszelly a political analyst.
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