Hungarian Protests Turn Violent

Embattled Prime Minister Admits to Lying About Economy

BUDAPEST -- Protesters clashed with police and stormed the headquarters of state television early Tuesday, responding with violence to a leaked recording that caught Hungary's prime minister admitting that the government "lied morning, evening and night" about the economy.

Rescue services said at least 50 people were injured as police fired tear gas and water cannons at rock-throwing protesters, who demanded the government resign.

The violence followed a mainly peaceful demonstration that began a day earlier outside parliament, after a recording made in May was leaked to local media. On it, Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitted that officials lied about government finances to win April's elections.

Gyurcsany said that he had no plans to resign.

"Our job is to resolve the conflict and prevent a crisis," the prime minister told the state news service Tuesday.

Socialist members of parliament voted unanimously to support him and the government called for an emergency session of the cabinet for Tuesday morning.

As the crowd grew by Monday night to more than 10,000, according to an estimate by Hungarian news agency MTI, several hundred broke away and marched over to the nearby headquarters of state television, demanding to deliver a statement in a live broadcast.

Several cars near the TV building were set on fire, their flames scorching the building. The rioters appeared to control some areas on the ground floor of the block-square television building.

The tape was made at a closed-door meeting in late May, weeks after Gyurcsany's government became the first in post-communist Hungary to win re-election.

"We screwed up. Not a little, a lot," Gyurcsany said. "No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have."

The prime minister also told colleagues the government needed to end its duplicitous ways. "I almost died when for a year and a half we had to pretend we were governing. Instead, we lied morning, evening and night. I don't want to do this anymore," he said.

Confronted with excerpts of the 25-minute recording, which Hungarian state radio posted on its Web site Sunday, Gyurcsany acknowledged their authenticity.