Hungarian PM won't quit over riots

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany rejected opposition calls to quit yesterday after anti-government riots he called the country's "longest and darkest night" since the end of communism.

The riots, in which over 150 people were hurt, followed the leak of a tape on Sunday in which Mr Gyurcsany said he and his Socialist party had lied for four years about Hungary's budget in order to win a general election in April.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest late on Monday, occupying and setting fire to the state television building and fighting with riot police in the first such violence since communism collapsed at the end of the 1980s.

Higher taxes and fees for healthcare and university tuition had prompted protests before the release of the tape sparked a violent backlash that weakened the Hungarian forint and other currencies across central Europe.

"The longest and darkest night of the third Hungarian republic is behind us," Mr Gyurcsany said on television.

"This is not a revolution, this is not 1956, this is the betrayal of our our great national history," he added later at a news conference referring to the Hungarian uprising against Soviet occupation 50 years ago.

Some 500 protesters gathered at Parliament during the day yesterday and more were expected in the evening. There are also plans for a big student demonstration today, seen attracting 10,000 people, which the organisers fear could be hijacked by the opposition.

The soaring budget deficit has forced European Union member Hungary to abandon plans to join the euro single currency in 2010, with analysts now saying 2014 was more realistic.

Five parliamentary parties passed a resolution condemning the violence. However, political analysts said the involvement of extra-parliamentary far right parties Jobbik and MIEP in the riots might diminish the value of the resolution.

A defiant Gyurcsany, facing the biggest challenge in his two-year premiership, said resigning was out of the question and he would continue with the tough reforms.

"I had spent three minutes on Sunday night thinking about whether I should step down or whether I had a reason to step down, and the conclusion I came to is that absolutely not," Mr Gyurcsany, a 45-year-old millionaire, said.

The protests came two weeks ahead of local elections on October 1 and follow a slump in the ruling Socialist Party's popularity to 25 per cent in polls from 40 per cent at the election.