Prime minister of Hungary offers to resign as crisis deepensThe Hungarian prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, has offered to resign so that a new government could lead the country out of the recent turmoil that has made it among the most troubled economies in Europe.
Mr. Gyurcsany's announcement, at a meeting of his Socialist Party on Saturday, surprised even seasoned political observers in Budapest, the capital, who were trying to sort out whether it was a serious resignation or a ploy by an unpopular politician to shore up his position in a time of crisis.
Either way, the latest upheaval reinforced the sense of instability in a nation that was once a magnet for investment among former Communist countries and had fallen on hard times even before credit markets began to seize up and the world stumbled toward recession.
"I hear that I am the obstacle to the cooperation required for changes, for a stable governing majority and the responsible behavior of the opposition," Reuters quoted Mr. Gyurcsany as saying at the party congress on Saturday. "If so, then I am eliminating this obstacle now. I propose that we form a new government under a new prime minister."
Governments in Latvia and Iceland have fallen this winter as a result of the economic setbacks those countries faced, and Hungary appears poised to join them.
Mr. Gyurcsany asked his party to come up with a new candidate for prime minister within the next two weeks but said that he wished to remain the party's leader. There are no plans for new elections in Hungary.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/22/europe/hungary.phpFidesz is Indisputable Leader in HungaryHungary’s main opposition party maintains a solid advantage over the governing party, according to a poll by Median. 66 per cent of respondents—all decided voters—would vote for the Hungarian Citizens Party (Fidesz) in the next general election, up three points since February.
The governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) is a distant second with 23 per cent, down two points. Support is lower for the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ).
Hungarian voters renewed their National Assembly in April 2006. The MSZP and the SZDSZ secured 210 of the legislative branch’s 386 seats, securing a full term for Socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. Fidesz, led by Viktor Orban, elected 164 lawmakers. In June 2006, Gyurcsany introduced a fiscal "austerity package" of state subsidy reductions and tax increases, aimed at lowering the country’s fiscal deficit.
In September 2006, Gyurcsany was criticized after Hungary’s state radio aired portions of an audiotape—which had been recorded in May—in which he told members of the MSZP that his administration "lied throughout the past one and a half or two years" about the state of the country’s economy in order to win re-election. The prime minister’s words sparked a two-week riot that threatened to end his government.
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/33049/fidesz_is_indisputable_leader_in_hungary
