Last Updated Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:11:18 EDT
The Associated Press
Protesters stormed the headquarters of Hungarian state television in Budapest Tuesday and forced it off the air briefly in an explosion of anger after the prime minister admitted lying about the economy during an election campaign in April.
Burnt-out cars litter the street in front of the Hungarian state television headquarters in Budapest after protesters stormed the building Tuesday. (Bela Szandelszky/Associated Press) Officials said about 150 people were injured in the violence, including 102 police officers, one of whom suffered a serious head injury.
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany vowed to stay in office and carry out economic reforms, despite the riots he described as the worst since the end of communism in 1989.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Gyurcsany condemned the "vandalism" of 2,000 to 3,000 protesters who fought police and invaded Hungarian television headquarters, but said he had complete confidence in the police's ability to restore order.
"I'm staying and I'm doing my job. I'm extremely committed to fulfilling my program, fiscal adjustments and reforms," he said. "I know it's very difficult for the people, but it's the only direction for Hungary."
Several thousand police reinforcements retook the headquarters of Hungarian state television early Tuesday after hours of violent clashes with protesters demanding that Gyurcsany resign for lying about the economy to win April elections.
"We had to cancel all programming and go off the air at about 1:20 Central European Time because the protesters — well, I should call them troublemakers, because they were not representing anyone here — they stormed the building," Balazs Bende, an editor at Magyar Televizio, the state broadcaster, said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"They broke through the barricade and started to go in and break everything that they could find. They started looting and taking everything they could," Bende said.
"So at that moment the management of MTV Hungary and security service of MTV Hungary ordered everyone, every worker of the television, to leave, and we have been escorted on a sideway door to relative safety," he said.
By daylight Tuesday, police controlled the area around the TV building, which also includes the National Bank of Hungary and the U.S. Embassy, and broadcasting resumed.
Gyurcsany called it "the longest and darkest night" for Hungary since the fall of communism.
The protests were triggered by a recording that surfaced Sunday on which Gyurcsany admitted lying about the economy during the campaign.
Gyurcsany's comments — made in May to the Socialists' group of parliamentary deputies — were full of crude remarks.
"We screwed up. Not a little, a lot," Gyurcsany was heard saying. "No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have."
"I almost died when for a year and a half we had to pretend we were governing. Instead, we lied morning, evening and night," he told his fellow Socialists.
President Laszlo Solyom asked Gyurcsany to publicly recognize his error, saying the news of the remarks had thrown the country into a "moral crisis." He also chastised the prime minister for "knowingly" jeopardizing people's faith in democracy.
Gyurcsany defended himself by saying that he was trying to convince his party of the urgent and inevitable need for comprehensive reforms and to change the political culture.
An emergency session of the National Security Cabinet is set for Tuesday.
In an effort to rein in a soaring budget deficit, his Socialist-led coalition has raised taxes and announced plans to lay off scores of state employees, introduce direct fees in the health sector and tuition for most university students.
"The parties behind the government have given (my program) full support … and we have to go ahead," said Gyurcsany, whose coalition with the Alliance of Free Democrats in April became the first Hungarian government to win re-election since the return to democracy in 1990.
"In Hungary, we have not witnessed these kinds of protests in the last 15-20 years, but just because 2,000 or 3,000 people don't understand what they can and cannot do, it's not a right to disturb the peace of the country," he said.
"I'm absolutely sure that the Hungarian police will be able to handle the situation and ensure security and restore calm."
Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei, who also oversees the police force, submitted his resignation because of the outbreak of violence, but his offer was rejected by Gyurcsany.
The protesters began gathering outside the parliament building Monday night to demand Gyurcsany's resignation. As the crowd grew to more than 10,000, according to an estimate by MTI, the state news service, several hundred broke away and marched over to the nearby TV building, demanding to deliver a statement in a live broadcast.
While most of the demonstrators watched, a few dozen broke through police lines and into the building. Police tried to disperse them with water cannon but the truck was quickly disabled by the rioters, some of whom escorted the police officers operating the vehicle to safety.
Several cars near the TV building were set on fire, their flames scorching the building. Rioters also vandalized a large obelisk commemorating Soviet soldiers who were killed driving Nazi forces from Hungary at the end of the Second World War.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
