HUNGARY: Hungary's government and opposition blamed each other yesterday for sparking riots that injured more than 150 people on the 50th anniversary of the country's uprising against Soviet domination.
Police dispersed the last few hundred protesters from a square near the Danube before dawn, and a bulldozer swept away a burning barricade blocking a bridge over the river. Officials said 167 people had been injured and 131 arrested during clashes that began on Monday afternoon.
"Radical words have turned into radical actions. The leader of the opposition provided the ideology for the riots," said the Socialist prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, referring to the right-wing Fidesz party and its long-time chief, Viktor Orban.
"They played with fire, but the nation got burned," said Mr Gyurcsany, who has resisted calls from Fidesz to resign after his admission that he lied about the dire state of the economy to win re-election in April sparked Hungary's worst violence since 1956.
Monday night's clashes echoed two nights of riots last month, which police blamed on a few hundred ultra-nationalists among thousands of people who demonstrated peacefully against Mr Gyurcsany and his planned tax rises and spending cuts.
Fidesz has tried to distance itself from the violence, but many people at its rallies chant nationalist slogans and wave the red and white "Arpad stripes" banner, which is associated with the far right and Hungary's war-time fascist regime.
"Why does [ Fidesz] not say during its rallies that these flags have no place there, that those protesters should get the hell out of there?" said Gabor Kuncze, leader of the Free Democrats, who are part of the ruling coalition.
Referring to the Arpad stripes, Peter Balazs, a political science professor at Central European University in Budapest, said: "The extremists participating in riots do not have a name but they do have a colour. These are aggressive far-right supporters and football hooligans."
Fidesz denies it has links with extremism, accuses the government of undermining democracy and condemns the "brutal" police for using rubber bullets, teargas and water cannon against rioters.
"Children and elderly people were also attacked. Policemen intruded into apartment blocks and chased and beat up peaceful onlookers," Fidesz said in a statement.
"The apparently unprovoked and disproportionate police action on the anniversary of the Hungarian uprising has further eroded the legitimacy of the Gyurcsany government."