- Title: HUNGARY: Hungarian police take action after biggest rally against prime minister
- Date: 24th September 2006
- Summary: (W1) BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 24, 2006) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) POLICE VEHICLES VARIOUS OF POLICE ASSEMBLING VARIOUS OF POLICE ARRESTING MAN VARIOUS OF POLICE INSPECTING BAR, CHECKING PEOPLE'S DOCUMENTS
- Embargoed: 9th October 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Hungary
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA4HOBG7EO8J782302JU0SA6PL4
- Story Text: Hungarian police in the capital, Budapest, arrested people and moved into bars checking documents after the biggest rally yet on Saturday (September 23) against prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who has admitted lying to win re-election.
Around 40,000 people poured into Budapest's parliament square on Saturday after a week of demonstrations calling for the millionaire Socialist prime minister to step down.
Despite the size of the rally and fears far-right extremists would turn up, the kind of violence that marred demonstrations earlier in the week did not materialise as well-armed police watched from the sidelines.
Analysts said he was likely to survive his biggest crisis in two years of leading the country and that the government would stick to budget reforms which have won preliminary backing from the European Commission.
The turmoil coincides with a political shake-up in Poland and a failure by Czech leaders to form a new government more than three months after an election, raising investors' worries about political instability across central Europe.
The Hungarian demonstrations have widened the bitter division between the governing left and the rightist opposition, each accusing the other of fomenting violence to win ground ahead of local elections on October 1.
The protests were ignited by a tape leaked to the media in which Gyurcsany admitted his Socialist party had lied to win re-election in April.
Gyurcsany has said he will stay in power and pledges to implement painful tax rises and spending cuts which have caused his government's popularity to plummet to 25 percent in recent polls from 40 percent at April's election.
He has won his party's backing for the cuts to rein in a deficit which has surged to 10.1 percent of gross domestic product -- the largest of any European Union member -- after four years of overspending. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None