The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 18/09/2006)
Hungary's Socialist Party has publicly backed prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany after the leak of a tape in which he admitted lying to win April's general election, despite opposition calls for him to quit.
Ferenc Gyurcsany: lies
The taped comments, in which Mr Gyurcsany said "we lied in the morning, we lied in the evening" about the need to raise taxes, among other things, were made at a party meeting in which he urged the party to embrace economic reform to fix Hungary's persistent budget problems.
Also in the recording, which was made in May and leaked yesterday, Mr Gyurcsany told deputies of his Socialist Party that they had "screwed up. It's obvious that we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true."
Party president Istvan Hiller pledged the Socialists, the largest member of a coalition government, would stand behind the reforms, which entail measures like higher taxes which were not in the election manifesto and which have triggered a slump in party popularity.
He said: "We will carry through every single economic measure passed by parliament and which serve to reeastablish the economic balance."
Hungary's main opposition Fidesz party said it would meet president Laszlo Solyom to discuss the situation and called on Mr Gyurcsany to resign.
Tibor Navracsics, Fidesz parliamentary faction leader, said: "This is an unprecedented crisis in the history of Hungarian democracy and Ferenc Gyurcsany is not part of the solution, but the problem."
Political analysts said there was little the president could do apart from express his displeasure about the comments.
While the tape may damage the Socialists in local elections next month, which they already looked set to lose, economists said it also showed Mr Gyurcsany was serious about reforms to fix Hungary's ailing finances.