nasza_maggie
19.09.06, 11:27
today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-09-19T034427Z_01_L18648256_RTRUKOC_0_US-HUNGARY.xml
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian protesters clashed with police and attacked
and occupied the state television building to demand the resignation of Prime
Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in the first such violence of the post-communist
era.
Police said around 50 people were injured in the protests on Monday evening,
which were sparked by a tape leaked to local media on Sunday in which
Gyurcsany admitted he and his Socialist party had lied about the budget to
win April's election.
The protesters initially set the television building on fire and then forced
their way in after the fire was extinguished. They also attacked a memorial
to Russian soldiers who liberated Budapest from the Nazis in 1945 which has
been a sore for some right wing Hungarians since communist rule ended in
1989.
"It will go on like this until he (Gyurcsany) resigns," said one young
protester, who declined to give his name.
"Tomorrow, twice as many people will come ... Nothing like this has happened
since 1956," said another, referring to Hungarians' failed uprising against
Soviet rule in 1956.
At least some of the protesters, who gathered in a crowd of 10,000 people
outside parliament earlier in the evening, were from fringe right-wing
parties, Reuters correspondents said.
Police used water cannon and tear gas to try to disperse the crowd, some of
whom were waving national flags. Scores of protesters hurled bottles and
cobblestones at police and at least one car was on fire.
One of the protesters outside the television station building said they
wanted a broadcast to show how the prime minister had lied and called for new
elections.
GOVERNMENT LIES
The protests were triggered by a tape in which the prime minister admitted he
and his party had "lied in the morning and in the evening" over the four
years of their rule from 2002-2006 and had achieved nothing but winning
April's election.
The government won power by promising tax cuts, but has since announced $4.6
billion of tax rises and benefit cuts, causing a plunge in its popularity to
25 percent from around 40 percent at April's election.
While the Socialist Party stood firmly behind Gyurcsany and pledged to
implement his program of deficit cuts, the opposition called on the prime
minister to resign and Hungary's president said he had caused a "moral
crisis".
President Laszlo Solyom said Gyurcsany had endangered Hungary's democracy and
said he expected him to admit that.
www.budapestpost.com/
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I wonder if Poles will ever start to get so annoyed at what our politicians
are doing and start to protest. Lying is probably just the tip of the iceberg
at Wiejska.
I don't support violence but it's nice to see that people care and react
enough to make themselves heard.
