HUNGARY: Hungary votes tomorrow in local elections that the right-wing opposition is calling a referendum on the prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, whose admission that he lied about the ailing economy triggered the country's worst violence in 50 years.
More than 200 people were injured in riots and more than 10,000 protested outside parliament for several nights last week after the Socialist leader refused to resign for misleading the nation about the need for deep cutbacks to balance the budget.
But while the demonstrations have now dwindled and the violence is a fading memory, the Fidesz opposition party is still demanding that the premier step down if his party loses tomorrow's municipal elections, which opinion polls suggest is likely.
"Political and moral support for the Gyurcsany government seems to be evaporating, it may well have evaporated already," said Fidesz leader Viktor Orban, who opposes the tax hikes and radical public spending cuts proposed by the Socialists.
"If the results of the October 1st vote show that Hungarian people reject the [ reform] package, then the prime minister must go and take the package with him," said Mr Orban, who was outmanoeuvred by Mr Gyurcsany in April's general election.
Fidesz denies instigating the street protests and has denounced rioting by a few hundred people led by far-right activists and football hooligans.
But the party has suffered by association with nationalists that Mr Orban has occasionally courted, and surveys suggest many people partly blame Fidesz for stoking clashes that were Hungary's worst since the 1956 uprising against communist rule.
"Orban and his party members talked of resistance, revolution and an anti-government rising. There were some who took that literally and picked up rocks, but even then Orban didn't call people off the streets," said Budapest mayor Gabor Demszky, a government supporter who faces a key battle for power with a Fidesz-backed candidate. While Fidesz is expected to do well in the provinces, analysts say the Socialists and their allies would have to lose in their city strongholds to really come under pressure.
Regardless of tomorrow's result, Mr Gyurcsany, a former communist youth member who became a millionaire businessman, has pledged to push through his unpopular reform plan to slash Hungary's budget deficit and prepare it to adopt the euro.