Post by yeni on Mar 22, 2009 13:45:40 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/world/22hungary.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=gyurcsany&st=cse
"Hungary’s Premier Offers to Resign
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LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMy SpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: March 21, 2009
BERLIN — Hungary’s prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, offered Saturday 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.
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Tibor Illyes/European Pressphoto Agency
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany of Hungary, shown at a Socialist Party meeting on Saturday, has no clear heir apparent.
Mr. Gyurcsany’s announcement, at a meeting of his Socialist Party this weekend, 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 both the small Baltic nation of 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.
Agoston Samuel Mraz, director of the Perspective Institute, a research group in Budapest, said the result would most likely be a politically weak leader, with a term of office lasting barely a year before the next election. However, he did not rule out the possibility that Mr. Gyurcsany would ultimately remain in office.
“If there is nobody who is ready to do this job, Mr. Gyurcsany will strengthen his position and he will be the winner,” Mr. Mraz said. “I could imagine it.”
There is no clear successor waiting to take Mr. Gyurcsany’s place. He and his Socialist Party have been criticized for raising taxes and cutting benefits to rein in the country’s budget deficit. Mr. Gyurcsany has ruled in a minority government since the Free Democrats, who propose even deeper spending cuts and economic changes, quit the governing coalition last year.
The ballooning budget deficit, which rose to 9.3 percent of the gross domestic product in 2006, left the country burdened with debt, roughly a third of which was in foreign currencies.
As a result, Hungary was one of the hardest-hit countries as capital began to flee emerging markets last fall. The more money investors pulled out, the weaker the country’s currency, the forint, became and the more expensive those debts were to repay. The government’s problems played out in miniature, but no less painfully, for people who had taken out mortgages and car loans in euros and Swiss francs.
In October, the country’s government was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union for a $25 billion rescue package."
This is the first good idea of Gyurcsany since he came to power but he should already do it in 2006. but we need new parliamental elections as early as possible, not another lame MSZP government. They proved their incompetency with two failed prime ministers (Medgyessy and Gyurcsány) why do they think a 3rd one can do smthing good for the country
"Hungary’s Premier Offers to Resign
Sign In to E-Mail
Reprints
ShareClose
LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMy SpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: March 21, 2009
BERLIN — Hungary’s prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, offered Saturday 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.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Tibor Illyes/European Pressphoto Agency
Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany of Hungary, shown at a Socialist Party meeting on Saturday, has no clear heir apparent.
Mr. Gyurcsany’s announcement, at a meeting of his Socialist Party this weekend, 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 both the small Baltic nation of 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.
Agoston Samuel Mraz, director of the Perspective Institute, a research group in Budapest, said the result would most likely be a politically weak leader, with a term of office lasting barely a year before the next election. However, he did not rule out the possibility that Mr. Gyurcsany would ultimately remain in office.
“If there is nobody who is ready to do this job, Mr. Gyurcsany will strengthen his position and he will be the winner,” Mr. Mraz said. “I could imagine it.”
There is no clear successor waiting to take Mr. Gyurcsany’s place. He and his Socialist Party have been criticized for raising taxes and cutting benefits to rein in the country’s budget deficit. Mr. Gyurcsany has ruled in a minority government since the Free Democrats, who propose even deeper spending cuts and economic changes, quit the governing coalition last year.
The ballooning budget deficit, which rose to 9.3 percent of the gross domestic product in 2006, left the country burdened with debt, roughly a third of which was in foreign currencies.
As a result, Hungary was one of the hardest-hit countries as capital began to flee emerging markets last fall. The more money investors pulled out, the weaker the country’s currency, the forint, became and the more expensive those debts were to repay. The government’s problems played out in miniature, but no less painfully, for people who had taken out mortgages and car loans in euros and Swiss francs.
In October, the country’s government was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Union for a $25 billion rescue package."
This is the first good idea of Gyurcsany since he came to power but he should already do it in 2006. but we need new parliamental elections as early as possible, not another lame MSZP government. They proved their incompetency with two failed prime ministers (Medgyessy and Gyurcsány) why do they think a 3rd one can do smthing good for the country