HUNGARY: A foreign mafia group is planning to set off bombs at this weekend's pre-election rallies in Budapest, Hungary's prime minister has warned yesterday.
Ferenc Gyurcsany, who is fighting to keep his Socialist party in power after the April ballot, yesterday said Hungary's security forces believed mass political meetings that are expected to draw hundreds of thousands were being targeted by the gang.
"The Hungarian secret services have been officially informed that a foreign criminal group, with the aim of destabilising Hungary's political situation, intends to carry out explosions in Hungary," Mr Gyurcsany told a news conference. "The campaign rallies are the planned location of the explosions."
The prime minister said Hungary had received the intelligence from a fellow member state of the European Union, but declined to name which one.
"According to the report, the attacks are being planned by three specified members of a well-known organised crime group," he said. "I have been told that the information received is credible and from reliable sources. It is unlikely that this is malicious disinformation."
The Nepszabadsag newspaper claimed the plotters were from Slovakia. Before Hungarian elections in 1998, Slovak crime groups were blamed for small bombs that exploded at a politician's home and the headquarters of two parties.
Though no one was hurt in those attacks, another bomb around the same time killed four people in central Budapest. The people who planted it have not been found.
The Socialists still plan to go ahead with their rally on Saturday, while their close centre-right rivals Fidesz, have scheduled their march for Sunday.
Polls show the two parties neck and neck ahead of voting, which takes place on April 9th and April 23rd.