Eastern Europeans Strike Back After Bill Clinton Slams Poland, Hungary for 'Putin-Like Dictatorship'

There's still some spirit in these NATO vassals

Mark Nicholas

Ex: http://russia-insider.com 

Funny thing. No matter how western-oriented Eastern Europeans (ooops sorry, "Eastern-Central Europeans") are and how eager they are to distance themselves from the likes of Russians they can never quite get Westerners to see them as anything but Russians-lite. 

They can be in NATO and the EU but to fully-fledged Westerners they will always remain a mere poor copies of truly advanced and civilized societies in the west proper. In only the latest reminder of this ex-US president Bill Clinton accused Poland and Hungary of tossing away democracy they only ever enjoyed thanks to the USA in favor of Russian-style "authoritarian dictatorship" and xenophobia: 

“Poland and Hungary, two countries that would not have been free but for the United States and the long Cold War, have now decided this democracy is too much trouble,” Clinton said on Friday at a campaign stop for his wife, probable Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “They want Putin-like leadership: just give me an authoritarian dictatorship and keep the foreigners out.”

Naturally, this historic revisionism took the "Eastern-Central Europeans" aback, but fortunately for them they did not take it lying down. The Hungarians were clear:

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said it was the Hungarian people who fought for the country’s freedom and Clinton didn’t have the right to snipe at voters who gave power to Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“No one, not even former U.S. President Bill Clinton can allow himself to insult Hungarian people,” Szijjarto said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.

“Bill Clinton may not like the decision of the Hungarian people, but this is no reason for the former American president to offend them,” he added.

The Poles combined their response with some damage control and covering for the American, but if anything they were even more colorful:

Poland’s foreign ministry said in an e-mailed statement that the comments were “unfair,” spoken during a heated election campaign and not in line with the views of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Former Polish Prime Minister Kaczynski, who is also the party’s head, took the criticism of the former US president directly to heart, advising Bill Clinton to have his state of mind checked by a doctor.

“If anyone says there is no democracy in Poland, it means that he is in a state that you need to examine by medical means,” Kaczynski told a briefing on Tuesday, as cited by TASS.

“I can say only one thing – that the media, various factors in the world, triggered a situation of a giant misunderstanding. Perhaps it affects the consciousness of the former president of the United States,” he added, trying to downplay the sharp tone of Clinton’s remark by offering his own explanation.  “Otherwise, I cannot explain it to myself,” he concluded.