"All of us as citizens have to recognize that the path towards an undemocratic America is not gonna happen in just one bang. It happens in a series of steps" - said former U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview for CNN's Anderson Cooper. As examples of countries that had once been "functioning democracies" but now have become "authoritarian", he mentioned Poland and Hungary.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview for CNN's Anderson Cooper shared his thoughts, among other things, on the global crisis of democracy.
"All of us as citizens have to recognize that the path towards an undemocratic America is not gonna happen in just one bang. It happens in a series of steps" - said the former president.
"And when you look what's happened in places like Hungary and Poland, that obviously did not have the same democratic traditions as we did, they weren't as deeply rooted, and yet as recently as 10 years ago were functioning democracies, now essentially have become authoritarian" - he added.
To Anderson Cooper's remark that "democracy doesn't always die in military coup, democracy dies at the ballot box", he replied: "That's exactly right".
"Vladimir Putin gets elected with the majority of Russian voters, but none of us would claim that's the kind of democracy we want" - Barack Obama stressed.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, CNN
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: CNN