Lech Walesa — "I am not a dictator. I am a democratically elected president."
I am not a dictator. I am a democratically elected president.
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More from Lech Walesa
"My critics say that I should speak better ... that I should read the things they write for me. But I have another principle, gentlemen, and that is to get things done."
"The greatest enemy of communism is not capitalism but freedom."
"Freedom is not free."
"Democracy is when people can spit in my face, and I have to wipe it off."
"I leaped over a wall and they made me president."
About Lech Walesa (born 1943)
Polish electrician who founded Solidarity in 1980, won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, and became the first post-communist president of Poland (1990-1995). Closely associated with Václav Havel (fellow Eastern-bloc dissident-turned-president) and Pope John Paul II (the Polish pope whose 1979 visit catalyzed Solidarity). For an intellectual contrast, see Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish general and Communist leader — Jaruzelski imposed martial law in 1981, banned Solidarity, and interned Wałęsa. He represented the Soviet-backed institutional power Solidarity's nonviolent labor movement was organized to displace — they ultimately signed the 1989 Round Table Talks together that ended Polish communism.