PRIME Ministers are often accused of lying, but Hungary’s top politician has provoked an angry backlash for the seemingly unthinkable: telling the truth.

Ferenc Gyurcsany probably knew he was taking a risk by admitting that his party had “screwed up”, “lied all along for 18 months, two years” and wasted its first four years in power.

He undoubtedly hoped that the contents of this confessional speech to his trusted inner circle would stay secret.

Unfortunately for Mr Gyurcsany, a tape was leaked to national state radio.

Opposition leaders called for the 44-year-old Prime Minister to resign and MPs from Fidesz, the main opposition party, said that they would boycott parliament today in protest.

Thousands of angry demonstrators who marched on parliament in Budapest on Sunday in protest remained there last night. Violent clashes broke out near the offices of state television and police fired teargas to stop protesters forcing their way into the building.

President Solyom talked of a “moral crisis” in Hungary and called on the Prime Minister to recognise that he had damaged people’s faith in democracy.

Mr Gyurcsany, a former communist-turned-entrepreneur, who has featured on the list of Hungary’s 50 wealthiest individuals, was forced to concede that the recording of a party event in May was genuine.

He went on television yesterday to defend his position and tried to turn the crisis around by insisting that he had been trying to shock his own party into action to rescue the country’s struggling economy.

The budget deficit is forecast to reach 10.1 per cent of GDP — the highest in the European Union — compared with the Government’s pre-election target of 4.7 per cent.

In the secret speech he admitted concealing plans throughout the election campaign to introduce a controversial austerity programme while publicly promising to raise salaries, despite questions raised by the Opposition at the time.

Speaking to deputies of his Socialist Party, he is recorded as saying: “We don’t have many options, because we have screwed up. Not a bit. Lots. No one in Europe has done such stupid bloody things, except us.

“It is obvious that we have lied throughout the past 18 months to two years. It’s clear that what we said wasn’t true. We have so surpassed the economic and financial possibilities of the country that . . . we would never have believed it possible from a socialist-liberal coalition government.” Tibor Navracsics, leader of Fidesz, has pledged to use every constitutional measure to remove Mr Gyurcsany.

But the Prime Minister vowed to resist calls for his resignation, and MPs voted unanimously to back him yesterday.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end