Extracts from a secretly recorded speech given by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, to members of his Socialist Party in May. The speech was broadcast on Hungarian radio on Sunday, prompting calls for his resignation and rioting in Budapest. The extracts are in chronological order and have been translated by Reuters from a transcript on Mr Gyurcsany's personal weblog.

"There aren’t many choices. There aren’t, because we f***ed up. Not a little, a lot. There is no other country in Europe that has shown such stupidity as we have."

"Obviously we lied throughout the past one and a half, two years. It was completely obvious that what we said was not true."

"Meanwhile, we have done nothing for four years. You cannot tell me of any significant government measure we could be proud of... If we need to give an account to the country what we have done for four years, what will we say?"

"Look. The thing is, in the short run there is no choice. Janos Veres [the Hungarian Finance Minister] is right. We can muck around a bit longer, but not much. The moment of truth has come swiftly... Reform or failure. There’s nothing else. And when I’m talking about failure, I’m talking about Hungary, the left, and very honestly, about myself."

"I almost died of having to pretend for the past year that we were actually governing. Instead we lied day, night and evening. I don’t want to do this anymore. Either we go ahead and then you have a leader or you have to pick somebody else.

"Reform means a willingness to re-evaluate all that we have thought and done so far on an array of points. I think we can do it. I think there will be conflicts, my fellows. Yes, there will be. There will be protests. There may be protests outside parliament. Sooner or later they will get bored of it and go home."

"We have to know what we want to do. The first few years will be horrific, of course. It is completely irrelevant that only 20 per cent of the population will vote for us ... What would happen if instead of losing our popularity because of bullshitting among ourselves we lost it because we promoted great social causes? In that case it is not a problem if we lose the support of society for a while."

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