"The lies are the sins of the whole Hungarian political elite." In this way Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has tried to spread the blame for the political turmoil which has greeted the leaking of the taped speech he made to his ruling Socialist party shortly after it won last April's general election.
In it he admitted that "we lied in the morning, we lied in the evening" about the state of the economy and what they would do about it. Instead of a budgetary surplus and ample spending plans, the country faces a huge 10 per cent budget deficit this year. Mr Gyurcsany's plans to raise taxes, sack public employees, introduce education fees and health charges have already antagonised Hungarians, but this cynical admission promises to enrage them.
The trouble is that most voters know what he says is true about the political elite and they are prepared to believe that the public finances are as bad as he outlines. The prime minister's party has a solid majority, which it won against expectations under his charismatic leadership. This surprise result shocked the opposition nationalist Fidesz party. Its leaders hope to capitalise on the outcry in forthcoming local elections, and many of their supporters were involved in this week's violence at the parliament building and television headquarters in Budapest during which 150 people were injured; but it is unlikely that they will be able to unseat Mr Gyurcsany. He is determined to see out this programme of painful fiscal adjustment aimed at stabilising the budget at around a 3.2 per cent deficit by 2009. It is "reform or fall", he told the party meeting last May. "And when I say fall, I mean Hungary. I mean the left side and I tell you frankly I also mean myself."
Mr Gyurcsany appears to have the bottle for this battle. His background in the communist youth movement of the 1980s and the easy transition he made during the 1990s privatisations to become a multi-millionaire propelled him readily into the cynical ways of Hungarian politics and its deceitful attitude to campaigning. After winning the election he argued: "the moment of truth will come swiftly. It was divine intervention, the abundance of cash in the world economy and hundreds of tricks - you obviously don't need to know about - which helped us survive so far." The European Commission, international banks and credit agencies have all taken notice and hope that he will indeed survive to carry out his programme, even as they too fume about the sheer audacity with which they were misled. Whether Mr Gyurcsany will be able to carry the political system with him and re-establish its legitimacy is another matter.
Voters elsewhere in Europe will recognise this political game - there are shades of the 1987 or 2002 elections in it for Irish voters - and ask whether it exemplifies politicians' rooted untrustworthiness. Whatever about that, Hungary's political crisis also tells a story about how difficult it can be for the EU's newest member states to put in place the policies required for economic integration.