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Defending Walesa’s Legacy in Poland Is Getting Tougher

Defending Solidarity’s Legacy in Poland Is Getting Tougher

(Bloomberg) -- As celebrations go, it was a big one in Gdansk. The city where Lech Walesa famously made a stand against the communist regime marked the anniversary of Poland’s peaceful transition to democracy 30 years ago.

When it comes to commemorating the past, though, nothing is straightforward in Poland nowadays, even for something that until recently was widely regarded as the country’s biggest political triumph.

Walesa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was cheered by crowds on Tuesday and European Council President Donald Tusk got a hero’s welcome in his hometown. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had other things to do. He instead honored the anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s 1979 visit to Poland, damned the 1989 elections with faint praise and then focused on reshuffling his cabinet.

Control of the historical narrative is a powerful political tool for Poland’s nationalist leadership, while defending the legacy of the Solidarity movement has become the norm in Gdansk. The trouble for the opposition is that the governing Law & Justice party machine looks increasingly hard to stop.

Defending Walesa’s Legacy in Poland Is Getting Tougher

While the Gdansk air was full of defiance, privately opposition grandees were wondering what they can do to turn the political tide and whether they have the leader to do it. On the fringes, the concern was that elections later this year that will dictate Poland’s course and have ramifications for Europe already look like a lost cause.

Populist parties across much of Europe may have failed to live up to expectations in last month’s voting for the European Parliament. Yet Law & Justice recorded a landslide victory, taking 45% of the vote. Indeed, Gdansk’s support for the opposition coalition, at 60%, was the stand out among the big cities that have been thwarting Law & Justice.

“You have to be brave, determined, but also have good ideas,” Tusk said in a speech to thousands gathered in Gdansk's historic city center. “Don't give up even if you lose the first match.” The crowd chanted back: “We will win. We will win.”

Such bullish talk masks the scale of the task. Since taking over in 2015, Poland’s nationalist leadership has turned the country into one of the European Union’s biggest renegades, clashing with Brussels over judicial independence and control of the public media.

Law & Justice chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski, once a minor player in the anti-communist movement with his late twin brother Lech, considers his party the defender of conservative Christian values in a Europe that’s dominated by liberal, pro-immigration forces backed by the gay lobby. That view is championed by loyalists like Morawiecki.

Defending Walesa’s Legacy in Poland Is Getting Tougher

The biggest opposition party, Civic Platform, has struggled to mount a counter attack after forming a coalition of pro-EU groups. The campaign message for the European election was that the government’s antagonism of the EU puts the country’s hard-won accession to the bloc and access to billions of euros in aid at risk. It won 38% of the vote, but it wasn’t enough.

“Many opposition politicians forgot how to listen,” said Magdalena Filiks, who heads the Democracy Defense Committee, a group set up in 2015 after Law & Justice was elected to monitor rule of law. “They must open their ranks to new people rather than fear competition. I hope they feel the pressure.”

Party supporters in Gdansk were talking of the need to replace leader Grzegorz Schetyna, while the official line is that the campaign needs to be stronger to stand any chance of unseating the government. Tusk, Poland’s prime minister between 2007 and 2014, co-founded Civic Platform and is the man many supporters are turning to, but he’s a divisive figure.

While Law & Justice has depicted Walesa as a traitor and communist informant rather than freedom fighter, Tusk is an enemy of the people, the protector of European “elites” the party has sought to undermine.

Defending Walesa’s Legacy in Poland Is Getting Tougher

Among EU officials in Brussels, the expectation is that Tusk will return to Polish politics when his term of office as European Council president comes to an end on Nov. 30, although he has never confirmed that even privately to diplomats, they say.

At one point, officials speculated he would end his term early in order to run in the Polish elections due by mid-November. But he remains occupied with Britain’s tortuous departure from the EU, which is now due on Oct. 31, and also must play a key role in appointing new EU officials.

“Tusk is Poland’s greatest existing politician, but if you’re asking if he should be Poland’s new political leader, I’d say it should be someone new,” said Jacek Taylor, a defense lawyer who worked with the opposition in the 1980s and took part in round-table negotiations with the communist regime. “Tusk has the clout to be a spiritual authority.”

In Gdansk this week, the dividing line ran just behind the still-standing famous gate to the long bankrupt shipyard.

Defending Walesa’s Legacy in Poland Is Getting Tougher

At the European Solidarity Centre, pro-EU liberals including Walesa and Tusk called on the country to respect human rights and the rule of law. It was a project of former mayor Pawel Adamowicz, whose murder by a lone knifeman at a rally in January shocked Poland. Last year, the Ministry of Culture cut the center’s funding.

“Gdansk is aspiring to become as important as it was back in 1980s with the spirit of Solidarity,” said resistance hero Henryk Wujec. “The legacy of Lech Walesa and Solidarity is seriously endangered. Take this as example: we’re celebrating freedom here and Morawiecki is ignoring it.”

As he spoke, the prime minister was at a smaller building that was once part of the yard and is now run by the Solidarity trade union. There, union leaders and officials gathered to conspicuously celebrate John Paul II. The fact that the pope didn’t visit Gdansk during his trip 40 years ago didn’t matter.

“We are not afraid of going against the current, the vast majority of the media, against foreign powers, against Polish forces, against the powerful of this world – because we know that we are going on your path,” Morawiecki said in a speech praising the pontiff.

Tusk said that to avoid another victory by Law & Justice, more pro-EU democratic groups should join the coalition of opposition parties. Politicians must pick up the baton from “heros” such as Walesa. But he gave no indication of any role he might play.

For Gdansk mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, time is running out to arrest the march of the ruling party.

“If Law & Justice wins next election we can start packing up our toys,” she warned on Monday. “Or they will pack them for us.”

--With assistance from Ian Wishart.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Rodney Jefferson

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