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On August 31, 1980, Freedom Hero Lech Valensa signed a huge pen agreement with the communist government, launching Solidarity, the first and only truly independent union in the Soviet bloc.
“I knew the communists wanted to trick me into trying to come to terms with us but stay in power,” said the former Walesa shipyard electrician, who became leader of Solidarity and later president of Poland.
“I wasn’t going to let them fool me. I told them to give me just a little bit, but I thought I would take everything else myself. And I did,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner told AFP.
Ten million Poles, including workers, intellectuals, farmers, teachers, artists and students, contributed to this peaceful movement, unprecedented in the country.
However, a year later, the movement was almost completely suppressed when General Voicech Jaruzelski imposed a state of war on Poland. At that time, Mr. Walesa was arrested and detained.
However, Solidarity remained and won the semi-free elections of 1989 in Poland. Then the first democratic government of the Soviet bloc came to power and this process eventually led to the collapse of communism.
The cornerstone of independence
“August 1980 is the foundation of Polish independence and democracy,” said historian Alexander Hall, a former adviser to Wales and later a member of the first democratic government.
The Solidarity movement was exceptional both in its scale and in its peaceful strategy. He played a key role in dismantling the old regime, “he told AFP.
Poland is now a member of the European Union and NATO, and its economy, the sixth largest in the Community, has been growing steadily for 30 years, until the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the economic transformation has been highly successful, the Polish political arena is now more fragmented than ever.
The results of the presidential elections in July also highlighted this polarization. Right-wing Andrzej Duda, closely associated with the conservative nationalist law and justice (PiS) government, was re-elected in the second, 51 percent. defeated the liberal-minded mayor of Warsaw Rafal Chaskovsky.
Trzaskowski has secured strong support among the middle class, young people, residents of big cities and well-educated voters. At that time, A. Duda was supported mainly by older and less educated people in rural areas. However, the political division sometimes manifests itself between members of the same family.
Rule of law
PiS, which came to power in 2015, stubbornly pushed forward its nationalist strategy, sparking concern for the liberal strata of society.
The party, led by Jaroslav Kaczynski, a former comrade in Wales and now a fierce opponent, has embarked on a series of controversial reforms that critics, including the EU, see as a threat to the independence of the judiciary and the state of right.
PiS, for its part, argues that change is necessary to overcome corruption in the judiciary and uproot the vestiges of the communist era.
According to conservatives, the system in force in Poland since 1989 was based on a faulty compromise between communists and some liberal Solidarity activists.
They believe it is necessary to restructure state structures and get rid of the last vestiges of communism, but critics accuse the PiS of boldly seeking to expand its power.
Solidaridad continues to function, but is now a normal union with about 500,000 members. members. Furthermore, he welcomes the current government and is criticized for it.
“As a union, it is very effective. You just have to make demands and you get what you want,” liberal lawmaker Jerzy Borovchak told AFP, referring to Solidaridad’s relationship with the government.
“It just came to our attention then. We were united and today we are fighting,” added J. Borowczak, one of the main organizers of the 1980 strikes that led to the founding of Solidaridad.
The current situation is underlined by the 40th anniversary of Solidarity: the opposing political camps celebrate this anniversary separately: Walesa and the opposition in the morning, and Duda and the government in the afternoon.
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