Budapest
At least 200 people were injured in Budapest this week when protestors demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany clashed with police. Some of the 10,000 demonstrators threw bottles at the parliament building and stormed the state television station, demanding airtime. The furor began when a tape recording of Gyurcsany was leaked to the press. In the recording, which was made last May, Gyurcsany tells deputies of his Socialist Party that they must stop relying on “divine providence” to keep the economy afloat. “For a year and a half, we had to pretend that we were governing,” he says on the tape. “Instead, we lied in the morning, in the evening, and at night.” Even before the leak, Gyurcsany confessed that he covered up the size of the budget deficit ahead of the April elections.
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