Posted on 09/26/2006 2:43:09 PM PDT by lizol
Hungary's Socialists rally behind embattled prime minister
By Pablo Gorondi ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:45 p.m. September 25, 2006
BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary's ruling Socialist Party stood by the prime minister Monday, saying it has no plans to replace him despite calls for the appointment of a caretaker government because he admitted he lied about the economy.
Only about 200 demonstrators rallied in the main Kossuth Square – down from last week's large protests, including 20,000 on Saturday demanding the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. But a group of prominent Hungarians submitted a petition to Parliament demanding the convocation of a constitutional assembly and the appointment of a caretaker government. “We are calling on people to come to parliament and demonstrate that they are not willing to tolerate this moral crisis,” said Attila Molnar, one of the petitioners.
Socialist Party official Ildiko Lendvai told Hungarian TV the party has no plans to replace Gyurcsany and accused “arsonists and looters” of being behind the past week's violent protests, which have been the largest since the fall of Communism in 1989.
The protests began Sept. 17, drawing thousands. For two days, police battled hundreds of radicals trying to storm strategic or symbolic buildings, including the Socialist Party headquarters.
The crowd in the square was down to a couple hundred by midday Monday, including some who slept in tents set up in the square.
“Our protest will not cease until the Cabinet resigns,” said Tamas Molnar, one of the organizers. “We want to bring down the current post-communist government.”
Many are outraged at Gyurcsany's admission that his government had “lied morning, evening and night” about the economy. A tape of the comments was made at a closed-door meeting in May, weeks after Gyurcsany's government became the first in post-communist Hungary to win re-election.
Austerity measures implemented by Gyurcsany's Socialist-led coalition have sought to rein in a government budget deficit expected to surpass 10 percent of Hungary's gross domestic product this year – the largest in the European Union.
On Sunday, a defiant Gyurcsany said in an interview he still planned to seek his party's chairmanship next year and that the results of municipal elections next week would not affect his plans.
“I'm going to fight for these policies and part of it is the modernization of the Socialist Party,” the tycoon-turned politician told the Vasarnap Reggel newspaper.
In a blog entry Monday, Gyurcsany reiterated that the lies he was talking about were not just his government's but those of the whole Hungarian political elite since the end of communism.
Not all parties, only those post-communist ones.
duhos magyarok
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