‘Nice Treaty or die’ mentality is rubbish, insists Poland’s old firebrand Lech Walesa

Date: 22/01/04

AFTER Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa is probably the most famous Pole on Earth. But just like his compatriot, the devout Walesa has never forgotten his roots.

His office is located in the centre of Gdansk, the city in which he first came to prominence, in 1980, after leading a strike at the Lenin Shipyard and helping to found the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) union movement, which presaged Europe's velvet revolutions and the eventual break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991.

A year earlier, the former electrician was elected Poland's first non-communist president, a post he held until 1995.

Despite his iconic status and relative wealth (his Gdansk office is situated in a building that once housed royal apartments), 60-year-old Walesa remains at heart the same down-to-earth, straight-talking, mouthy spark who persuaded his fellow shipyard workers to down tools.

He arrives for the interview a little late after attending mass in a nearby church. He is wearing a tiny picture of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in the lapel of his jacket.

It's Epiphany, the day in the Christian calendar which celebrates the coming of the Magi. The wise men may have come bearing gifts but it is clear that Walesa is in no mood to be overly generous where Leszek Miller's government is concerned.

Addressing his country's stubborn stand at last month's Brussels summit, which scuppered a deal on the EU constitution, he declares: "I have never heard of greater rubbish than a call to "defend the Nice Treaty or die" position. True, a mistake was made at the start: the West adopted principles that it now refuses to follow. The Polish politicians, on the other hand, linked the accession referendum too strongly to the promises they were given."

He is referring to the decision by EU leaders at the Nice summit of 2000 to grant Poland a disproportionate 27 votes in the Council of Ministers, compared to 29 for Germany, even though the latter has a population almost twice the size of its neighbour. The Convention on the future of Europe recommended ditching these controversial voting weights in favour of a more transparent double majority system, under which a law would simply require the backing of 50% of member states representing 60% of the EU population to pass muster.

Walesa says the Polish government is "afraid to lose face", though he concedes "Polish democracy is too young and too fragile for our elites to be able to justify such abrupt changes at such short notice. You cannot make a fool of 40 million people," he adds.

At the same time, he accepts that "the solutions proposed by the European Convention are more logical [than Nice] and must be agreed upon if the enlarged Union is to function smoothly".

"Perhaps the change of rules should be introduced on the first day after Poland's accession [1 May]. That would spare both sides humiliation".

Perhaps surprisingly, given his strong religious beliefs, Walesa is not an uncompromising advocate of incorporating Christian values in the preamble to the constitution. "The absolute truths are not to be written in official documents but to be practised in real life," he states. "Many noble declarations have eventually been depreciated in practice. We should not look for trivial obstacles."

Walesa feels the process of Europe's integration will only truly begin with enlargement. A future Europe, consisting of countries which took the path to free market economy just a decade-and-a-half ago alongside long-established democracies, will be like a land inhabited by teenagers and pensioners, he says. This "generation gap" will make the continent "dangerously unbalanced", he warns.

Whereas the new member states "will bring into the Community greater sensitivity and rich historical experience, those who made profits from colonialism, communism and capitalism have to bear the heaviest burdens of integration".

"Enlargement calls for the spirit of Schuman and Adenauer. Some long-time members seem to forget that. I do not ask them for charity money. I appeal to them for a good investment, which will pay off in the future. Only a balanced and prosperous Europe as a whole will stand up to the challenges of the global race."

Walesa is quick to explain that it is not his intention to ape US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's depiction of Europe in terms of "old" and "new". He is against such artificial distinctions and is equally strongly opposed to the recently voiced ideas of a "core Europe", championed by some of the founding members of the Union. Walesa describes such moves as a "strange re-eruption of pure nationalism".

Looking at the broader picture, the one-time Nobel Peace Prize winner says the world has thankfully moved on from the destruction witnessed in the 20th century "epoch of Earth".

"Mankind will not fight for new territories any longer. Those times are gone. The new century is the era of trading in the products of the human mind; the time for exchange of intellectual property; the time of a full victory of the human intellectual genius.

"The fascination with mechanical industry is a thing of the past. Old-fashioned military conflicts should be abandoned. Soon, we'll be able to send most of the generals to retirement," says Walesa in the true spirit of a peacemaker, "and I have a new job for them. Since they so much like to shoot, they may operate water cannons on my lawn."

"What is needed now," Walesa continues, "is the reorganization of human mentality. The "New Man" who will emerge from this process will have to decide upon the conflicting ideas of a liberal, free market economy, strongly drifting towards the concept of a welfare state, or of economy based on the entrepreneurial abilities of an individual."

Walesa admits he is not sure yet which concept he prefers.

He is irritated by questions on the EU's defence policy, and the possibility of US military bases being moved from Germany to countries such as Poland or Romania.

"Who is the enemy?" he asks. "Russia? Or China? Can war in a traditional sense and on a global scale still be fought? What would it solve except for bringing misery and suffering to millions of people, or entirely destroying our planet?"

He originally supported the US intervention in Iraq but confesses to having had second thoughts since. "Humanity faces other challenges in the new millennium. In the global world, borders lose their crucial meanings. And by the way, what frontiers can there be in the era of the internet? The struggle for traditional resources is an old-fashioned tune. Major issues to be tended to are terrorism, poverty, diseases and overpopulation. But even these will eventually fade away and lose their weight, since they are so deeply rooted in the old concepts. The future calls for mankind to step up to a higher level of civilization."

Walesa's musings on the world's future have an almost mystical quality. The sad reality is that all revolutions devour their children. His story is no different from the rest in that sense. Pushed out of the political scene in his own country after losing his bid for re-election as president in 1995 to Aleksander Kwasniewski, Walesa now spends half the year in Gdansk and half abroad. He is frequently in demand as a speaker in the US as well as in EU capitals.

With only about 5% of popular support in his native country but huge, unshakeable popularity elsewhere, it looks as though Walesa - once a rebellious and restless fighter - has turned into more of a Solzhenitsyn, or even Nostradamus-type of figure.

His predictions sometimes contain conflicting concepts and leave much room for interpretation, but it is hard not to be moved when they are delivered in person.

Walesa stubbornly insists he is merely a "practical man". He foresees our future continent as a United States of Europe, with one president, one government and one parliament. He claims that such were his preferences even 15 years ago but too many people "did not listen to him then". He also subtly hints he would make a fine leader of such a super-state.

Who knows, perhaps he will throw his hat into the ring for the job of Commission president in the meantime?

According to Walesa, Europe must be governed in a spirit of solidarity. Too many of the current pack of political leaders are short-sighted and given to decision-making calculations wound up by an election clock.

The result is a lack of broader perspective and a weakened will to complete the job in hand. However, he is optimistic about the Irish presidency's chances of bringing about reconciliation among conflicting parties, and believes that enlargement will proceed smoothly. There is no other alternative.

He cannot conceal a hint of bitterness when asked about his political plans for the immediate future. He clearly has not got over being dumped by the Polish electorate in 1995.

But Walesa will always be a fighter and is not the type to give up. He wants to continue his "mission" and to share his incredible experiences with others.

His manners may be brusque and his language sometimes harsh but he is, in the words of one Gdansk native, "the most natural and the least affected of the Polish politicians".

Some young photographers are hovering about us while we talk. It turns out that they are preparing an album entitled Polish Icons.

How many other Polish icons are they going to find? They do not know the answer. For now, they do not care. They have got the old electrician who helped Poland (and most other enlargement countries) finally see the light again.

Major interview with the former president of Poland.