Thousands renew protest against Hungarian PM

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

BUDAPEST, Sept 8 (Reuters) Ten thousand people took to the streets of Budapest today to demand Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany resign as the anniversary approached of the leaking of a tape in which he admitted lying to win re-election.

Around 30 groups - some close to the main right-of-centre Fidesz party and some from the far-right - joined the protest outside parliament, scene of violent protests last year, Hungarian news agency MTI reported.

There were protests outside parliament in September and October last year after the leaking on September 17 of the tape in which Gyurcsany said he had ''lied morning, noon and night'' about the economy to win the general election in April 2006.

Since winning re-election Gyurcsany has imposed tough measures to rein in the budget deficit which hit 9.2 per cent of gross domestic product in 2006, the biggest in the European Union, and has vowed to implement more far-reaching social reforms.

''The Socialist-liberal government is only that in name. It is really anti-social,'' Ildiko Pelczne Gall, a senior official of Fidesz, told today's rally, which ended peacefully.

More protests are expected in the run-up to the anniversary of the leaking of the tape and through to the October 23 anniversary of the country's anti-Soviet uprising in 1956.

REUTERS PDT KN2102

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