Former U.S. president Barack Obama has come under sharp criticism after describing Hungary and Poland as being “on the leading edge of confronting autocracy”—in what can only be described as a thinly veiled attack on conservative governments in Central Europe.
In a video published by the Obama Foundation, Obama warned of what he called “a rising wave of authoritarianism sweeping the globe,” claiming that “politicians target civil society, undermine freedom of the press, weaponise the justice system.”
The comments followed a discussion in London with three alumni of the Obama Foundation’s global leadership programmes—Sándor Léderer, co-founder of the Hungarian anti-corruption NGO K-Monitor, Zuzanna Rudzińska-Bluszcz, Poland’s former Deputy Justice Minister, and Stefánia Kapronczay, former executive director of the human rights NGO Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.
Obama praised his guests for “fighting the good fight” to strengthen democracy, and suggested their countries were facing “significant challenges” from “authoritarian” leaders intent on shaping the public agenda in their own favour—an obvious jab at Hungarian conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the former Polish conservative governing party, Law and Justice (PiS).
The intervention drew strong reactions in Budapest and beyond.
Balázs Orbán, the Hungarian PM’s political director, responded on X, saying that “Barack Obama is not concerned about democracy—he is concerned about preserving the dominance of the liberal elite.” He added:
It comes as no surprise that Barack Obama—a long-time advocate of globalist ideology & identity politics—is unsettled by a Hungary that has consistently and successfully defended its sovereignty against international pressure for the past fifteen years.
Critics noted that the organisations represented in Obama’s discussion, K-Monitor and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, are long-time recipients of funding from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and other Western donors.
According to press reports, K-Monitor derives almost 90% of its income from foreign sources, including U.S. and EU-based foundations, raising questions about its independence.
Meanwhile, Obama’s remarks ignored growing concerns over democratic backsliding in Poland under Donald Tusk’s current left-liberal government, which took power in late 2023.
Since then, several conservative opposition figures have been targeted with politically motivated prosecutions and investigations—the very “weaponisation of justice” Obama claims to oppose.
One of them, Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister, has even sought political asylum in Hungary, saying he cannot count on a fair trial in his own country. Rudzińska-Bluszcz herself served in Tusk’s government between 2023 and 2025.
American actor James Woods also weighed in, accusing Obama of hypocrisy for “lamenting the weaponization of the justice system under President Trump, with a perfectly straight face.”
The episode once again illustrates how left-liberal figures invoke ‘authoritarianism’ whenever conservative governments resist globalist or progressive agendas. The former U.S. president’s remarks sound less like a defence of democracy and more like an attempt to delegitimise those who do not share his political creed.
