Pneumonia slows Polish democracy icon, Lech Walesa

Polish Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa, hospitalised with pneumonia since June 8, said yesterday he will cut back his busy public speaking schedule after he is discharged.

“I’m feeling better but I’m still weak and tired. I’d like to cancel any trips abroad that last longer than a week,” the 67-year-old communist-era opposition icon and sought-after guest speaker said from hospital in Gdansk.

“The rest will depend on my state of health.”

The former Polish president has cancelled engagements in Italy and Romania since he came down with a high fever and gastric problems and was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Internet fanatic Walesa has not let his health scare get in the way of his avid blogging, and has been posting pictures from his hospital stay – posing with staff and a steady stream of guests – at lechwalesa.blip.pl.

Mr Walesa has diabetes and cardiac problems, and in 2008 was fitted with a pacemaker in a US clinic.

“My health isn’t what it used to be. I have to submit myself to the will of my doctors,” he said.

As a shipyard electrician he was leader of Solidarity, a union born during a 1980 strike in the Baltic port of Gdansk that won grudging recognition from Poland’s communist authorities. As a result, the moustachioed Pole won global renown.

The government backtracked in 1981 and imposed martial law to crush Solidarity, but the movement kept alive underground. Mr Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his non-violent opposition to the regime.

Solidarity returned to the limelight in 1989, negotiating an election deal with the authorities and scoring a victory that brought down the regime, speeding the demise of communist rule in Europe by 1991.

In 1990, Mr Walesa became Poland’s first democratically elected president since World War II, serving one five-year term.

He has remained a respected democracy activist, and recently travelled to Tunisia to offer know-how for its transition.