The government and the Opposition will celebrate the 30. Anniversary of the first partially free elections in Poland separately. Solidarity leader and Nobel prize winner Lech Walesa criticized the national-conservative government party, the PiS.
Lech Walesa (center) and Donald Tusk (right) during the celebrations in Gdansk
The Gdansk shipyard is considered the birthplace of the Polish Opposition. Here the trade Union, solidarity, headed by the shipyard electrician Lech Walesa stand, in 1980, from here, the impetus for the protests in Poland went out. At the end of the 1980s, Solidarnosc was one of almost 10 million members and the largest opposition movement in the entire Eastern bloc. The 4. In June 1989, as the poles were able to choose for the first Time, anti-Communist candidates to the Parliament, symbolizing the end of the 40 years long Communist Era in Poland.
Gdansk, as a solidarity Symbol
30 years later, the anniversary will be celebrated separately: In Warsaw, Poland’s state remembered with a solemn session of the Senate on the anniversary of the first partially free elections after the end of the war, during the Nobel peace prize laureate Lech Walesa, and many other former solidarity activists in Gdansk celebrated. On the occasion of the anniversary, under Walesa, and President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, Gdansk Declaration of freedom and solidarity, were recognized in the events of 1989 was signed. The former Polish head of government, Tusk was also a solidarity member. “We want democracy without any dispute and hatred”, – stated in the Scripture. According to information from the town hall in the Northern Polish city of the nation didn’t react-conservative government in Warsaw on the invitation to the celebrations in gdańsk. This shows that also this anniversary of Poland in the period up to today.
The controversial compromise
The elections on may 4. In June 1989 the most important conclusion of the discussions of the round table between the Opposition and the Communists were. To avoid bloody clashes with the police, renounced the solidarity in a hard line and voted in their candidates for only 35 percent of the seats in the Sejm set up. There were for the Senate, the second chamber of the Parliament, no restrictions.
The Opposition has on 4. June 1989 to pull everything, what was possible. This was the first major Triumph of anti-Communist Opposition in Eastern Europe. Lech Walesa speaks of a “miracle” and a “world of success”. “The Communists have expected that we will lose, and yet we have mastered it so beautifully,” he says.
Totally different, the looks, the Polish rights, the round table and the elections for a rotten compromise. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Chairman of the government party law and justice (PiS), called the 4. In June 1989, although a “very important Moment in Polish history,” but he also speaks of “later disappointments”. He accuses Walesa, the cooperation with the Communist security services. That he removed the Communists from public life, blamed on Walesa.
Lech Walesa as a trade Union leader in the 1980s
Donald Tusk as a hope for Poland
Walesa and Kaczynski were formerly close allies with a common enemy: the Communists. The PiS Chairman was during the presidency Wałesa even head of Chancellery in the office of the President. Today they are political opponents, and their constant confrontation reflects the separation lines in the whole Polish society.
Walesa considers Kaczynski a “classical dictator”, the led because of his “authoritarian style” of the legal state in the dispute with Brussels. He sees Similarities between Kaczynski and the US President, Donald Trump: “If you do not succeed, then you want to abolish immediately the institutions, destroy.” For Walesa, Kaczynski is not a Democrat, he had learned democracy, never, instead, he was living in the past. “Nationalism and the populism of PiS come from the past, from the time before the turn,” said Walesa in an interview with DW ahead of the celebrations in Gdansk – and calls this “a return to the old demons”.
The Polish Opposition was not strong enough: “The PiS has won, because we have vacated the field,” emphasized the former President in light of the significant victory of the PiS in the European elections. He places his hope in the return of the EU Council Donald Tusk in the Polish policy: “He is an outstanding personality. The return will be after a few years of absence, easily, but my support he will have in any case.”
Walesa fears the Hungarian scenario
If the Opposition is weak, will Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s lead in the direction of Hungary and the two countries would “destroy Europe”. “For this scenario is to be prepared in Germany, the strongest EU country, a solution. Berlin must take on its leadership role in Europe,” said Walesa in the interview -. Today, more and more Europeans are disoriented: “It is as if you had cleared all the road signs from the streets. The need to be re-established.”
30 years after the first free elections in Poland, Walesa as well as the PiS pull a bitter balance from different perspectives. The anniversary would be an occasion to celebrate together, but he reflects the division of the country and the Polish society.