Many readers note that Hungarians are rioting because the prime minister was caught telling lies. About fiscal policy. Seriously.
Some 150 protestors have been hurt battling with the cops and a furious mob of bookworm citizens bum-rushed the State Television headquarters. The whole crazy story and why Washington needn't ever fear such an uprising, after the jump.
The Hungarian currency is falling, EU bureaucrats are losing their minds, and recently reelected PM Ferenc Gyurcsany is probably going to resign or be thrown in a dungeon ... all because he admitted lying about the deficit, which is closer to 10% of GDP rather than the 4.5% Gyurcsany's "Socialist" party claimed during the campaign.
Bizarrely for a politician, Gyurcsany's private admission was part of an articulate argument for launching painful economic reforms for the long-term health of the country:
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.What a freak!
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.
There's actually a fairly well-off democracy where citizens not only know what "deficit" and "GDP" mean, but will get off the couch and storm the capital when their politicians are caught lying about such things.
Next thing you know, the Euroweenies will be rioting over the Constitution or something.
But it will never happen here, so don't worry!
Extracts from the Hungarian PM's 'lying' tape [Times of London]
EU Warns of "Painful" Times Ahead for Hungary [Deutsche Welle]
Monday Night Rioting - How They Rated [Pestiside.hu]
-- KEN LAYNE
