In some of the worst violence  since the failed Hungarian uprising against Soviet domination 50 years ago, Budapest on Wednesday was faced with ongoing rioting sparked by anger over the leaked admission that the government had lied about the economy ahead of elections last April.

Mounted police forcibly dispersed bottle-throwing protestors gathered in front of the Socialist party headquarters of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. Up to 50 people were reportedly injured. Just as in the night before, a larger demonstration of roughly 10,000 started out peacefully but eventually turned violent. In rioting on Sunday night, at least 100 were hurt after demonstrators occupied the basement of the state television headquarters and forced it off the air.

Gyurcsany has so far refused to resign over the affair, possibly heralding a further escalation of the unrest. "I'm staying and I'm doing my job. I'm extremely committed to fulfilling my program, fiscal adjustments and reforms," he told The Associated Press. "I know it's very difficult for the people, but it's the only direction for Hungary."

German newspaper commentators on Wednesday are deeply concerned about the implications for the democratic institutions of Hungary -- once considered a model post-communist country in Eastern Europe.

The right-wing daily Die Welt laments what it sees as "Mexican conditions" developing in Hungary, apparently referring to the recent contentious election and public demonstrations in the Latin American country. "That witnesses compared the street fighting with the uprising of 1956 is doubly bitter. For what happened on the Freedom Square had nothing to do with the fight for democracy." The paper argues that the recent rioting shows that an "aggressive political exchange of blows has become routine in Hungary." Die Welt doubts that the recent outpouring of violence was spontaneous, pointing to far-right hooligans and Gyurcsany's political arch-enemy Viktor Orban, the head of the right-wing opposition. "The riots in the metropolis on the Danube expose what condition Eastern Europe's one-time model state really is in. EU and NATO memberships remain thin shells when societies in transformation do not come to terms with their past."

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has little sympathy for the demonstrations against the government. Calling Gyurcsany's contentious comments to members of his own party a "sweat-and-tears speech" meant to pave the way for tough reform policies, the FAZ believes he can weather the storm -- even if he'll have some explaining to do to EU officials in Brussels. "Budapest apparently did much less to fulfill its reform pledges than presented publicly and is now compelled to force matters to meet the criteria that will enable funds to flow from the EU budget for the next seven years." The paper closes by asking rhetorically why the demonstrators believe the new attempt by the government to push through tough reforms is worth protesting against.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung is concerned that "a scandal, like the one caused by an act of almost self-destructive honesty from Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, can quickly move to hysteria." But the paper -- pointing out that Hungary has the EU's worst budget deficit -- argues he was just exposing that Hungarians had been living a lie the past 16 years. "The drastic words were meant to shake up the timid in his own party in order to encourage them to back the consolidation course that the nation so needs." The paper holds out hope that the incident surrounding Gyurcsany's comments might end up being cathartic in nature, eventually encouraging the Magyars to accept painful economic reform measures.