WARSAW, Poland — Lech Walesa is still fighting. The founder of Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity movement attended President George H. W. Bush’s state funeral in…
WARSAW, Poland — Lech Walesa is still fighting.
The founder of Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity movement attended President George H. W. Bush’s state funeral in Washington wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “Konstytucja” (Constitution), a symbol of a political struggle in his homeland against the populist government.
He and other critics accuse the national-conservative ruling party, in power since 2015, of eroding the very democracy Walesa helped achieve, mainly by eroding the independence of the judiciary.
Some of Walesa ’s compatriots criticized him, saying he should have worn more formal attire as he paid his respects to the 41st president at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday. They said it was not the time or place to make a political statement about a domestic issue.
But defenders say the eccentric and outspoken 75-year-old, once a political prisoner of the Soviet-backed communist regime and the winner of the Nobel Peace prize in 1983, has earned the right to do whatever he pleases.
