Posted on 09/18/2006 3:19:01 PM PDT by MadIvan
Adding spice to the scandal, Gyurcsany's comments were full of crude remarks and called into doubt the abilities of some of Hungary's most respected economic experts.
A leaked recording that caught Hungary's prime minister admitting the government had lied about the economy - keeping it afloat through "tricks'' and relying on "divine providence'' - has prompted protests outside parliament and calls for his resignation.
The tape was made at a closed-door meeting in late May, weeks after Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's government became the first in post-communist Hungary to win re-election.
It seemed to confirm the worst accusations levelled at him by the centre-right opposition during the campaign - that Hungary's state budget was on the verge of collapse and that Gyurcsany and his ministers were concealing the truth in an effort to secure victory.
Adding spice to the scandal, Gyurcsany's comments were full of crude remarks and called into doubt the abilities of some of Hungary's most respected economic experts.
"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.
Opposition demands resignation
The 45-year-old Gyurcsany, his party's golden boy since he was elected prime minister in late 2002, said the economy had been kept afloat only through "divine providence, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks.''
Confronted with initial excerpts of the 25-minute recording which Hungarian state radio put up on its Web site Sunday afternoon, Gyurcsany not only acknowledged their authenticity but seemed relieved they had been made public - leading to speculation that the leak came from sources close to him.
Opposition parties demanded his resignation, while President Laszlo Solyom chastised the prime minister for "knowingly'' jeopardising people's faith in democracy and asked Gyurcsany to publicly recognise his error.
Hundreds of protesters were outside parliament, also calling for his dismissal.
Fixed. ;)
WOW!!
You mean a Leftist/Socialist LIED to get elected??
Who'd a thunk it....
Got Em' a good lil'fire goin',,,
Too bad we didn't have the stones to do something like this during the Clinton years,eh?
Well I'll be. Julius Nyerere's long lost brother I assume.
May be "Swim The Witch" time soon,,,;0)
Reminds me of the ministry of truth from 1984
Igen; ertem.
Long time no see....you okay, my old friend?
bttt
Just as other Europeans celebrated the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, with crescent shaped pastry/rolls, so too did the Hungarians. :-)
Does that mean they're no longer socialist?
I knew a Hungarian-born turned naturalized citizen in grad school. Great guy, but a bit of a bonehead. He had to have been related to Laszlo, who in turn must be related to Lawrence O'Donnell...
No Soviet tanks to roll in and proitect the liars this time!
But perhaps the Hungarians will be finally able to throw off the yoke of Communism/Socialism and be truly free.
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