Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa (born 29 September 1943) is a Polish politician, trade union organizer, philanthropist and human rights activist, who became the first democratically elected President of Poland (1990–1995) after the fall of the People's Republic of Poland. He is well known for his unintentionally humorous remarks.

• You can’t change the facts with your lies, allegations and counterfeits
  • Being accused of being an agent for the Soviet era communist police, quoted on New Europe (February 18, 2016), "Poland’s former president accused of being a communist spy"

• Freedom must be gained step by step, slowly. Freedom is a food which must be carefully administered when people are too hungry for it.
  • Interview with Oriana Fallaci (22 & 23 February 1981)

• Na zmęczeniu, goryczy, uczuciu bezsilności nie można budować.
  • It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
  • Walesa, Lech. Speech. "Nobel Lecture". 1983 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance (11 December 1983)

• Aresztowano mnie wiele razy. Za pierwszym razem, w grudniu 1970 roku, podpisałem 3 albo 4 dokumenty. Podpisałbym prawdopodobnie wtedy wszystko, oprócz zgody na zdradę Boga i Ojczyzny, by wyjść i móc walczyć. Nigdy mnie nie złamano i nigdy nie zdradziłem ideałów ani kolegów.
  • I was arrested many times. The first time, in December 1970, I signed 3 or 4 documents. Most probably I'd sign anything then, except consent for the betrayal of God and Fatherland, to get out and be able to fight. I have never been broken and I have never betrayed the ideals or my comrades.
  • A note to the Polish Press Agency issued on 4th June 1992 after the publication of a list of Communist collaborators compiled by Antoni Macierewicz.
  • Przerwana premiera, an interview by Jerzy Kłosiński and Jan Strękowski with Jan Olszewski, Warsaw 1992

• Można powiedzieć, że byłem gdzieś niezręczny, może nawet kogoś wsypałem, ale nie to, że byłem agentem. Nie to, że chciałem kogoś zdradzić (...) Przysięgam i niech mnie szlag trafi, jeśli kłamię.
  • One could say I was goofy somewhere, and maybe even outed someone, but not that I was an agent. Not that I wanted to betray anybody. (...) I swear, and damn me if I lie.
  • From the IV Copernican Debate at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, after Gazeta.pl and TVN24

• I am convinced that Germany has drawn conclusions [from World War II] and Europe has drawn conclusions as well. And I can say an unpopular thing. If once again Germany should risk destabilizing Europe, then there would be no division of Germany — it would simply be blown off the map of Europe. With the kind of technology that exists, with the kind of experiences we have had, there can be no other way — and the Germans know it.
  • Jarosław Kurski: Lech Wałęsa: democrat or dictator?, Westview Press, 1993, ISBN 0813317886 p. 59 and p. 166:

• If once again Germany destabilizes Europe, then Germany will be not be divided again, but wiped off the map. East and West have the necessary technology in order to enforce this verdict. If Germany begins again, there is no other solution.
  • Wenn Deutschland noch einmal Europa destabilisiert dann wird Deutschland nicht mehr geteilt, sondern von der Landkarte gefegt werden. Ost und West haben die notwendige Technik, um dieses Verdikt auch vollstrecken zu können. Wenn Deutschland wieder anfängt, bleibt keine andere Lösung. - From the report of the German magazine DER SPIEGEL 15/1990 about an interview of Wałęsa by Dutch weekly Elsevier of 7 April 1990, which was partially reprinted, with an additional Pancho caricature, by French Le Monde

• Dobrze się stało, że źle się stało.
  • It is good that it came out that bad.
  • Source: Mariusz Urbanek, "Jestem za, a nawet przeciw", in: Helge Hesse, W 80 powiedzeń dookoła świata, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2009, ISBN 978-83-245-8733-9

• Dodatnie i ujemne plusy.
  • Positive pluses and negative pluses.
  • Source: Mariusz Urbanek, "Jestem za, a nawet przeciw", in: Helge Hesse, W 80 powiedzeń dookoła świata, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2009, ISBN 978-83-245-8733-9

• Dokonałem zwrotu o 360 stopni.
  • I turned around by 360 degrees.
  • Source: Mariusz Urbanek, "Jestem za, a nawet przeciw", in: Helge Hesse, W 80 powiedzeń dookoła świata, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2009, ISBN 978-83-245-8733-9

• I am for, and even against.
  • Source: Mariusz Urbanek, "Jestem za, a nawet przeciw", in: Helge Hesse, W 80 powiedzeń dookoła świata, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2009, ISBN 978-83-245-8733-9

• The weakness of the Eastern European regimes was demonstrated anew in Poland, both by the activities of underground Solidarity and by the serious strikes that began in April 1988. The government had grudgingly sought to widen its support by negotiating with other elements, but it wished to exclude Solidarity. The Catholic Church, however, refused to create a co-operative Christian labour movement as the government wanted, preferring to leave the more intransigent Solidarity as the key body for negotiations. The Communists were opposed to trade union pluralism, but, as a sign of movement on the government’s part, the amnesty of 1986 had freed political prisoners. The 1988 strikes discouraged the Party leadership and demonstrated its failure to find a solution to Poland’s problems. Combined with Gorbachev’s renunciation of intervention on behalf of Communism, this failure encouraged the leadership to move toward yielding its monopoly of power. On 30 November 1988, there was a televised debate between Lech Walesa and Alfred Miodowicz, the head of the official trade union federation and a member of the Politburo. This was a highly significant step as the television served as a means of controlling the dissemination of opinion. On 6 February 1989, Round Table talks between government and the technically illegal opposition began, with the Church, an institution of great prestige in Poland, playing an important mediatory role. Under an agreement, signed on 5 April 1989, reached against a background of widespread strikes, elections were held in Poland on 4 June. Only 35 per cent of the seats in the lower house, the Sejm, were awarded on the basis of the free vote, the remainder going to the Communists and their allies, but all of these seats were won by Solidarity. This expression of the public will was a dramatic blow to the old order. Communist cohesion collapsed, not least with the Communist Party being abandoned by its hitherto pliant allies. Strikes and other protests meanwhile continued. The new government was headed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a member of Solidarity and a Catholic intellectual. He became the first non-Communist Prime Minister behind the Iron Curtain. There was, however, to be a major division between those who endorsed the ‘Round Table’ political settlement of 1989 as a way to avoid bloodshed, and those who criticised it as, allegedly, a compromise providing subsequent cover for ex-Communists to pillage the state.
  • Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)

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