Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany won a confidence motion convincingly in parliament today.
Mr Gyurcsany, who has come under intense pressure to quit after admitting he lied to voters, secured the votes of 207 MPs with 165 against.
He had earlier told parliament he would not bow to opposition "blackmail" and vowed to stick to his tough economic programme.
He still faces what is expected to be a large protest rally over his refusal to quit since he admitted having lied about the economy to win an election in April.
"I call on parliament not to give in to threats and street blackmail organised by the opposition," he said in a speech before the confidence vote, the first since democracy was restored in Hungary in 1990 after decades of communist rule.
Mr Gyurcsany once again apologised for the tone of his leaked comments, on a profanity-ridden tape, at a meeting with Socialist MPs in May, and for not being brave enough to tell the truth in the election campaign.
But he did not apologise for lying to the voters.
"We must stick to this programme . . . balance is needed, reforms are needed and development is needed for this country," he told parliament today.
Mr Gyurcsany called the vote to win parliament's backing for his plans to slash the budget deficit, the biggest in the European Union. He has a 34-seat majority in the assembly.
He and his Socialist-led government campaigned on tax cuts but, after retaining power, introduced big tax rises to reduce a budget that which has ballooned to 10.1 per cent of GDP under Socialist rule since 2002.
The budget deficit target for 2006 was 4.7 per cent of GDP, using European Union accounting methodology.