The eclipse of Walesa's political career

Abstract

ALTHOUGH EASTERN EUROPE'S 1989 'REVOLUTION' was largely bloodless, it devoured most of its heroes and the leaders of the Polish Solidarity movement were not exempt from this fate. Not long after Solidarity's grand coalition came to power, it suffered a series of debilitating political defeats. In the 1980s Solidarity leaders like Michnik, Kuron, Mazowiecki and Geremek, who championed fundamental democratic values in a decadent communist system, were heralded as eminent leaders in difficult times. By the 1990s most Poles viewed these same individuals as just another group of shifty politicians, undeserving of their trust. This decline from exalted leader to untrustworthy politician was also shared by Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement. Next to Gorbachev, Walesa was the most important leader of the revolution which brought down the Iron Curtain. Idolised in the 1980s for his idealistic fervour, Walesa began to be viewed in the 1990s as just another individualistic, ruthless and controversial politician, responsible for political chaos in Poland. Walesa's decline tells a great deal about the diverse and contradictory groups formerly united by anti-communist fervour who brought down the government, only to splinter into many factions when the revolution was over. It also demonstrates the role the media played in Central Europe in the 1990s. Such development of Walesa's political persona was accompanied by a steady fall in his popular support.1 Clearly, larger and larger portions of the population had begun to conclude that there were no other reasons for this behaviour but his own egotistical political interests.2 Walesa's behaviour was commonly perceived as destabilising for the precarious post-Solidarity rule, as clearly detrimental to the ongoing socio-economic reforms, and finally, as an important factor helping to pave the way for the rebounding post-communists. The collapse of Walesa's popular political image was only one key reason for the fading of his political career. He had also became both a very active perpetrator as well as indeed a victim of the intricate and often arcane political games that were one of the key features of Poland's transition. Without an examination of that political manoeuvring, the development of his political career in the 1990s cannot be fully comprehended.