Barack Obama, president of the United States attended the annual meeting of Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York on Tuesday. In his speech he praised the initiatives of the Clinton couple and appreciated the work of the civil organisations all over the world: “When citizens are free to organize and work together across borders to make our communities healthier, our environment cleaner, and our world safer, that’s when real change comes.”
He also mentioned those countries which do not treat fairly the civil organisations. According to Obama countries like Russia, China, Venezuela and Azerbaijan pose a constant threat against civil communities. Even Hungary has been included into the inglorious group: “From Hungary to Egypt, endless regulations and overt intimidation increasingly target civil society. ” Obama emphasized, that those attacks undermine democracy, therefore it needs to be protected. The president has confirmed that protecting the civil groups of the society is one of the missions of the U.S. government.
Obviously Obama has criticized Hungary because of the recent scandal of the Foundation ‘Ökotárs’. We wrote about the controversial topic here. Barack Obama could have the opportunity to share his concerns with János Áder, since the Hungarian president is on official visit in New York this week.
source: mandiner.hu photo: reuters