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Poland

Former Polish president Walesa is in hospital with an infection

cde.news desk · 1 min read
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epa09640656 Former Polish President and leader of the Independent Polish Trade Union Solidarity, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa attends a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland at the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers in Gdansk, northern Poland, 13 December 2021. Martial law in Poland was declared in the period between 13 December 1981 and 22 July 1983. The government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted everyday life by introducing martial law and a military junta in an attempt to counter political opposition, in particular the Solidarity movement. EPA-EFE/Adam Warzawa POLAND OUT

WARSAW (Reuters) – Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader who played a leading role in the fall of Communism, is in hospital with an infection and will remain there for at least a week, his spokesman said on Monday.

Originally a shipyard electrician in the northern port city of Gdansk, Walesa became a symbol of the historic changes that ended the Cold War, leading the Solidarity trade union movement which brought about the switch to a free-market economy in 1989.

Walesa posted a photo of himself lying in a hospital bed on Facebook on Sunday with a caption saying “It happens”.

A spokesman for the 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate told Reuters Walesa had an infection and would stay in hospital this week, but declined to provide any more information.

Walesa went through a COVID infection in January. He has suffered from ill health in recent years and underwent a heart operation in 2021.

He served as president from 1990 to 1995, the first leader of post-Communist Poland.

In recent years he was a staunch critic of Poland’s ruling nationalists, Law and Justice (PiS), who in turn have been deeply critical of the transition from Communism to a free-market economy that Walesa led.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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