Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has hit out at Poland and Hungary, claiming the countries’ rejection of mass Muslim migration means they reject democracy and want “Putin-like dictatorships”.

Speaking at a New Jersey rally in support of his wife Hillary Clinton’s bid for presidency, Bill Clinton drew parallels between the governments of the two former Eastern bloc countries and the presumed Republican candidate Donald Trump.

“Just give me an authoritarian dictatorship and keep the foreigners out, sound familiar?”

The former president said Poles and Hungarians had decided “democracy is too much trouble” for them and that citizens of the countries “want [Russian President Vladimir] Putin-like leadership.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto hit back at the “unacceptable” comments, stating “The decision of the Hungarian people may not appeal to Bill Clinton, but this is insufficient justification for the former U.S. President to insult them in such a way”.

According to Wprost, Frank Spula, the president of the Polish American Congress (an umbrella organisation of Polish Americans, and Polish American groups) said that he is seriously considering urging Poles to withdraw their support for Hillary Clinton as a result of Mr. Clinton’s insults.

Also speaking on immigration and terrorism at the rally Mr. Clinton told the audience that, “America desperately needs its Muslims who love freedom and hate terror and want to be a part of this country”.

Rejecting any link between Muslim immigration and terror attacks he said the latest terror attack on American soil, San Bernardino, happened “because of people who converted over the Internet”.

The statement echoed remarks he made in February, when he told a crowd that the San Bernardino shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, had “never been to the Middle East” and “were converted over social media.” The shooters, who left 14 people dead, had met in Saudi Arabia and Tashfeen Malik had lived in the Gulf state most of her life, having moved there from Pakistan.

Hungary Today notes that Ms. Clinton’s campaign is supported by George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire financier and founder of Open Society Foundations, who is an avid supporter of mass migration to Western countries and a long-time critic of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government.