HUNGARY: Hungarians head to local polls in test for PM

Record ID: 326932

  • Title: HUNGARY: Hungarians head to local polls in test for PM
  • Date: 1st October 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER FERENC GYURCSANY SAYING: "This election is about local municipalities. People have to decide about mayors. I do not see any cause to consider these elections as a referendum on central goverment. We are continuing our programmes and I am absolutely sure that at the end of this programme, the significant majority of the people
  • Embargoed: 16th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABFVQ99HCW3ETH9P9SQY446BGO
  • Story Text: Hungarians vote in local elections on Sunday (October 1) in a test of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, whose admission that he lied over the economy to win April's general election triggered street protests.
    Sunday's vote is the biggest test for Gyurcsany after a tape, in which he said "we lied in the morning, we lied in the evening", was leaked on Sept. 17, but unless the government loses Budapest and big cities, it will likely survive.
    Gyurcsany, a millionaire Socialist, had already seen his party's popularity slide before the protests as a result of a package of tax hikes and subsidy cuts introduced after he campaigned on a platform of lower taxes.
    Most foreign investors want Gyurcsany to stay as he is making the first attempt in years to restore economic order in a country whose budget deficit has soared to 10.1 percent of gross domestic product, the highest in the EU.
    Sunday's elections, covering 3,174 cities, towns and villages, are being portrayed by the opposition Fidesz party as the third round of April's election in which voters will get their first say on the new tax rises and subsidy cuts.
    Voting starts at 0600 and ends at 1900 (0400-1700 GMT).
    Fidesz says that if it gets more than half the vote, Gyurcsany's "illegitimate" Socialist-Free Democrat government should quit and be replaced by an interim government of experts and new elections held.
    That idea has been ridiculed by the Socialists and their smaller Free Democrat allies who have pledged to stay in power and stick to the economic reforms, aimed at cutting the budget deficit to 3.2 percent of GDP by 2009.
    Gyurcsany said after casting his ballot: "I do not see any cause to consider these elections as a referendum on central goverment. We are continuing our programmes and I am absolutely sure that at the end of this programme, the significant majority of the people would see that this programme was and it is a very successful one."
    Analysts say that while Socialist support has slumped to 23 percent from more than 40 percent in April, there may be a sympathy vote after the riots in which protesters set fire to and stormed the state television station.
    Support for Fidesz is around 34 percent and there is a risk that if party leader Viktor Orban cannot claim victory on Sunday, he may be dumped as he has lost three of the last four elections.
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