2ND Budapest braces for more anti-government violence By Michael Logan

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Wednesday September 20, 2006

By Michael Logan, Budapest- Hungarian police Wednesday locked down key locations in the centre of Budapest as the capital braced for a potential third night of violence. Trouble first broke out overnight on Monday when protestors, angry at Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's admission he had lied to the electorate, set fire to cars and broke into the building of Hungarian Television.

Rioting continued in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with police using tear gas, mounted charges and water cannons to disperse rock-throwing protestors attempting to reach the headquarters of Gyurcsany's Hungarian Socialist Party.

Over 200 people have been injured so far, several of them seriously, in the violence, and police were expecting more flare-ups later in the evening.

Police have been pouring into the city to seal off parliament, the buildings of Hungarian Radio and Television and the Socialist's headquarters.

Deputy Police chief Arpad Szabadfi, who blamed football hooligans who had attached themselves to peaceful protests for the violence, said that the police force was attempting to anticipate where trouble could break out.

Gyurcsany also branded the violent protestors as "agitators" who wanted to use the protests to commit criminal acts.

The protests outside parliament have remained peaceful for the last three days, despite over 5,000 people gathering outside the building each evening.

The violence has come from small splinter groups, many of them carrying nationalist flags and sporting right-wing insignia, in other areas of the city.

However, speakers addressing the crowd of around 1,000 that had gathered outside parliament by 17:30 pm local time (15:30 GMT) dismissed the claims that hooligans were responsible, instead blaming police for the clashes.

Despite the violence, most of the demonstrators favour peaceful means, but worry that they may not get their wish.

"Gyurcsany must resign, but there is no need for this violence," Maria Varga, 36, said as she stood in the crowd outside parliament. "Unfortunately, I can see it going on for weeks."

One piece of good news for the police emerged on Wednesday, however, after student organization HOOK, which had been planning a demonstration against tuition fees for Thursday, announced that it would postpone the gathering.

Fears had been raised that right-wing extremists would hijack the demonstration.

However, the leader of main right-wing opposition party Fidesz, Viktor Orban, rejected calls to cancel a local election rally planned for Saturday.

Fidesz expects hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets, and Orban said that his party would work with the police to ensure that the rally remained orderly.

Orban said that his party supported only peaceful means to bring down the government.

Orban has called for Gyurcsany to resign, calling him a "pathological liar", as have other opposition parties.

Demonstrations began Sunday, when a leaked tape of a foulmouthed speech by Gyurcsany in May at a meeting of his Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) was posted on Hungarian Radio's website.

On the tape, the prime minister admitted lying to the nation in advance of April's general elections.

In the speech sprinkled with vulgarities, Gyurcsany admitted his party had hidden the scale of an austerity package, which has hit many ordinary people in their wallets with tax hikes and energy price increases.

However, the full text of the speech, which has been largely overlooked by the public, reveals Gyurcsany making an impassioned plea to end the lies and go forward with the package in an effort to resolve the nation's economic woes.

The prime minister on Wednesday continued to resist the calls for his resignation and said that he would push through the reforms.

Local elections are scheduled for October 1, and the socialist's popularity, which was already struggling, has plummeted to around 25 per cent in polls since the release of the tape.

Gyurcsany has attempted to recover by shifting the blame onto the opposition, saying that his opponents could have "called back these people from the streets."

Some analysts have also suggested that inflammatory language and comparisons to the 1956 Uprising against Soviet rule from prominent right-wing figures had contributed to the violence.

Even as the demonstrations continued on Wednesday, speakers at parliament repeatedly called the protests a "revolution," raising memories of the 1956 Uprising against Soviet rule in 1956, the anniversary of which falls next week.

The violence on Monday held echoes of the Uprising, as the protestors attempted to hand in a list of their demands to Hungarian Television.

The first shots were fired in 1956 when students attempted to hand in their demands to Hungarian Radio.

However, Gyurcsany and many independent analysts called the comparisons "ridiculous."

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur