It's been a funny fortnight for Lech Walesa, former President of Poland and moustachioed hero of the Solidarity movement.
It began with the the passing of his Holiness Pope John Paul II, an event which shook the country and prompted national mourning on an almost unprecedented scale.
Two weeks later Lech had filed a lawsuit against a Catholic Radio Station and threatened to resign from the internationally celebrated Solidarity movement that he had spawned - both for entirely different reasons. What on earth was going on?
Things began to unravel when President Kwasniewski (himself a reformed communist) invited Walesa to fly with him to the Pope's funeral in Rome. Proud Walesa, who's unique relationship with the Pope was indeed of ineffable importance during the Solidarity era, declined the invitation from the former commie (he had of course defeated Walesa in the presidential elections of 1995).
Nevertheless, at the funeral itself, Walesa reached out the hand of reconciliation and apologized to the President. Later, Lech commented that his own magnanimity towards such a man was proof of the fact that the Pope 'worked miracles.' It was a classic Walesa remark.
Getting into the spirit of things, Lech then decided to invite the President to the forthcoming Solidarity commemoration. One problem - he hadn't asked the rest of the Solidarity bigwigs if they liked the idea. They clearly didn't, being staunchly anti-communist, and no invitation was issued to Kwasniewski.
In response, Walesa threatened to resign from Solidarity, whilst still maintaining that he would come to their celebrations. The absurdity of the situation leading news presenter Minika Olejnik in stitches on Wednesday when she interviewed Walesa alongside the stung leader of the current Solidarity Association. Naturally, Kwasniewski himself must be finding the whole situation highly comical, and who can blame him.
To round the week off, Lech has just filed a lawsuit against the controversial Catholic station Radio Maryja, who claimed that Walesa had even spied for the Communists in the last years of the old system. The Radio was inspired to make these allegations after Walesa made a candid criticism of the station in an interview a month ago.
As it goes, the majority of Poles have reservations about the incendiary Radio Maryja, as indeed did the Pope. And like many politicians, Walesa was cleared of any such smears on his honour when his files were subjected to a standard review in 2000. Either way, whilst Walesa's heroic days are behind him, it looks as if he has many more colourful ones to come.
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