Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany was facing a potential crisis Sunday after he admitted on a clandestine tape leaked to radio stations that his party had lied. "Obviously we have lied over the last ... two years. It is clear that what we were saying was not true," Gyurcsany says on the tape, which was supposedly recorded on May 26, just one month after the prime minister's ruling coalition had been re-elected.
"We haven't done anything for the last four years," he continues on the recording. "I can't mention a single political step we can be proud of apart from finally pulling the government out of the shit."
Gyurscany's governing coalition is already facing accusations of deception and the prospect of a drubbing in local elections on October 1. The problems stem from the government's stringent austerity package, which it announced not long after re-election. Voters are angry that the government did not reveal during the election campaign the scale of the measures, which are aimed at cutting Hungary's huge budget deficit with a view to joining the euro zone.
Gyurcsany defended his comments in a TV interview and said that he would not resign over the issue. He said that he was not referring to lying over the austerity measures, but was referring to the "trap of political lies" that the entire Hungarian political elite had fallen into. He also said that his comments regarding doing nothing referred only to the lack of reform.
The latest revelation could hit hard, with polls already showing a slump in the popularity of the ruling coalition since the austerity package bit.
The website of Hungarian Radio, which was one of the stations carrying the recording, was down Sunday night, and MTI news agency said that this was due to a sudden surge in traffic as people tried to listen to the tape on the internet.
DPA
