"... Normally in central Europe, it is easier to raise taxes than cut spending, so the eventual spending cuts may be smaller. Hungary also remains highly vulnerable to emerging-market fatigue in its currency and stockmarkets (although this week's riots seem not to have unsettled investors much). But the most important question about the programme is not whether it will work—given a chance, it will—but whether voters will accept it.

Before the election, the government clearly did not believe that they would. Now Hungarians are waking up to discover that they have been lied to for years. That is hardly the best way to reconcile them to austerity. Perhaps the best that can be said is that Mr Gyurcsany is at last being brutally frank in confronting problems that he (and the opposition) long pretended did not exist. He is gambling that his majority will hold together long enough for his austerity programme to start working, for the economy to recover and for his party to be re-elected again. (As he put it, “they can go ahead and rally in front of parliament...It's no big deal if we lose some support. We'll get it back.”)

A lot is riding on this gamble: not just Hungary's economy, but the adoption of the euro by new members and the very reputation of central Europe (now somewhat besmirched by the waywardness of Poland's rulers, the thuggery of Slovakia's and the non-existence of a Czech government). Given a choice between being honest with voters and winning an election, Mr Gyurcsany picked the second—as most politicians would. Given a choice between tough decisions and muddling through, he has now opted, unusually, for the first. Mr Gyurcsany is doing the right thing in the wrong way. Unfortunately for him, this week he was found out. "