TENS of thousands of demonstrators called for the resignation of Ferenc Gyurcsany, Hungary’s Socialist Prime Minister, at a rally outside parliament yesterday.

The streets around the parliament were a sea of Hungarian flags, but in contrast to the recent violence the atmosphere was almost carnival-like, with rock music blaring out across Kossuth Square.

The rally was called by the right-wing opposition Fidesz party but is unlikely to bring down the Government. Mr Gyurcsany won a vote of confidence in parliament yesterday. The ruling Socialist-Liberal coalition attracted 207 votes, against the opposition’s 165.

Mr Gyurcsany appears to have weathered the political storm that broke out last month after the leak of a tape of a speech in which he admitted that he had lied. The admission led to the worst violence on Budapest’s streets since the 1956 uprising.

The protesters said that they would stay until the Government resigned. “We are tired of all the lies, and we don’t understand how someone who admits he is a liar can stay in power,” Eva Kovacs, 43, said.

Mr Gyurcsany admitted that the Government had wavered over a reform programme intended to cut the bloated state sector.He told Parliament: “We procrastinated facing up to unsustainable policies . . . we always found an excuse and could not face problems with sufficient resolve. We avoided facing up to reality, we lacked courage and we tried to bypass the most honest, simplest answers.

“If an apology is needed for anything, then for this. I apologise . . . I do have personal responsibility, because I headed the previous government.”

Opposition leaders have called for the Government to step down and be replaced by a an interim cabinet before new elections.

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