Budapest, Hungary – Mounted police charged bottle-hurling protesters outside Socialist party headquarters early today, in renewed unrest fomented by the prime minister’s leaked admission that his government had repeatedly lied to the public about the health of Hungary’s economy.
Unlike Tuesday, no one was reported injured in the clashes, which involved only splinter groups separate from a larger demonstration of about 10,000 people who gathered for a third night in Kossuth Square, the vast plaza outside the neo-Gothic parliament building.
Dozens in the bigger crowd in the square waved Hungarian flags, and some demonstrators set up tents, signaling they intended to stay at least overnight. Several said they would remain even longer – until the resignation of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, whose taped comments set off the country’s worst violence since its failed anti-Soviet revolution 50 years ago.
“I hope we can accomplish our goal,” said Tamas Szep, 48, a paint-supplies wholesaler. “Not only the prime minister, but all of his sidekicks have to go.”
Protesters accused the governing coalition of lying to win the April elections, but people also were upset over tax boosts and other economic-austerity measures that Gyurcsany has ordered over the past three months.
Opposition leader Viktor Orban, whose center-right FIDESZ party lost in the elections, also demanded the prime minister’s resignation, describing him as “a sick, lying dilettante.”
