A "Watergate-style" political scandal has broken in Hungary after the opposition party was forced to admit an over-zealous intern was responsible for hacking into the servers of the governing party. Fidesz said the hack against the systems of the ruling socialist party, ahead of the April general elections, was not sanctioned by the party's leadership but, nonetheless, conceded it was a serious breach of electoral etiquette.

"Whichever one of our enthusiastic staff did this committed a serious mistake, but the world will not come to an end," Fidesz campaign chief Antal Rogan told Hungarian TV last week, AFP reports. Nearly 3,000 items of campaign literature were downloaded from its secure server, according to the government. The intrusion was traced back to an IP address belonging to Fidesz.

Hungarian police have launched an investigation. Socialist president Istvan Hiller says he wants to discuss the attack with Fidesz leader Viktor Orban. ®