During a visit to Poland in late March to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden remarked that Warsaw “holds a sacred place in the history of not only Europe, but humankind’s unending search for freedom.” Poland was the first to overthrow Communist rule in a peaceful revolution, the first of a wave that rippled across Europe in 1989. Biden continued: “We’re all grateful in America and around the world to Lech Wasa.”
Instantly recognisable by his iconic moustache, Wasa, the 78-year-old former leader of the Polish Solidarity movement, speaks to me over Skype from Gdask. Just like with many of his public appearances, Wasa sports a jumper emblazoned with the KONSTYTUCJA (Constitution) slogan used to protest against the current Polish government’s attempts to control the judiciary.
The first president of Poland to be elected after Communist rule, Wasa is a frequent and vociferous critic of the ruling Law and Justice Party, which he accuses of undermining the democracy he helped to build through the 1990s.
For months, the European Commission has refused to release billions of euros for Poland’s Covid recovery fund due to concerns over how the money would be spent, and the politicisation of the courts. However, the country’s welcoming of a plurality of refugees from Ukraine has generated praise for a government often criticised as one of the most regressive in Europe. Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, recently said that the country had “never had such an excellent brand.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Wasa emphasises to me that amid the Ukraine crisis, Poland's political crisis should not be overlooked. After praising the “wonderful” humanitarian response to the Ukrainian exodus, he adds that “we mustn’t forget about the state’s infringement of the division between the three powers [the executive, legislature, and judiciary].”
For Wasa, the world has yet to complete its transition from the end of the Cold War—a transition from a world of conquest and invasion to one of cross-border dialogue and cooperation facilitated by technology. He calls this period the “Epoch of the Word and Discussion”—debates over the moral and economic foundations of a society.
According to Wasa, populist leaders latch on to the uncertainty created by this liminal state. “Politicians haven’t come up with any solutions. Populists win because their message is simple and convincing.” He singles out as examples the ongoing French election, where the far-right leader Marine Le Pen has a chance of winning on Sunday, and the re-election of Viktor Orbán in Hungary despite his praise for Putin.
Putin’s Russia is still stuck in the era of conquest, according to Wasa. Yet in 2018, he described Putin as a “wise man” during an interview on Sputnik, a Russian state-owned news agency which has been banned recently by the European Union and blocked worldwide by YouTube. He no longer stands by that assertion, which he says was made in a very different political climate. “At that time, I really believed he was trying to build a sort of United States of Russia, built on the three-way division of power and democratic principles. Obviously, I now have a different opinion. Today I see him as a sick man who wants us all to go to hell together.”
The two men met at Boris Yeltsin’s funeral in 2007. Wasa would not be drawn on what they discussed, but is scathing about the Russian president’s attempt to cling to power. “I’ve always said that all elected positions should be for one term, or a maximum of two terms,” he said, going on to describe Putin as “the product of a corrupt system where you can have as many terms of office as you’d like.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has argued in favour of Ukraine joining the European Union, and the country recently completed a questionnaire with a view to joining the bloc. But Wasa doesn’t think Ukraine is ready: its economy and democratic institutions are too weak. “[Poland] wasn’t entirely ready to join the EU. But we’re in the process of pulling ourselves up to where we need to be. Ukraine will do the same. Obviously not during a war! That has to end first, and then they can start the process.”
He continues that while there are parallels between the resistance of the Ukrainian people and the Solidarity movement he led to victory in the 1989 elections, the Ukrainians should also be wary of falling prey to the same short-sightedness as the Polish government. After joining the EU and NATO, Wasa believes Poland “hit a wall” because they failed to consider the values and rights on which it would build a lasting democracy.
While Europe agonises over how to wrest itself from energy dependence on Russia, Wasa stresses the need for immediate practical action. “Today, people are being murdered. The most important thing we have to do is stop that.”
The fight of the Ukrainian people is a fight for everyone’s future, he believes. It is a fight which epitomises the uncertainty of our present epoch, between the world of conquest and the world of communication, which has boiled over into open warfare.
Wasa ends by reflecting on how his experiences as a political prisoner and struggles through the 1980s could serve as inspiration to the embattled Ukrainians. “I had to believe in miracles. And when I believed in them, they happened. And that's what I want to say to Ukrainian people: believe in miracles and they will happen.”
