Europe needed unity and the Lisbon Treaty was a necessary step in that direction, former Polish president and leader of the Solidarity trade union, Lech Walesa told a press conference in Dublin today.
Visiting Ireland as a guest of the Fine Gael party, the Nobel Prize winner said “some older people” would remember that he was involved in the struggle against Communist totalitarianism. This had led to the current opportunity for uniting Europe.
There could be “no peace” without “good control and steering” in the European Union. “Someone has to manage it,” he said, but the “hardest challenge” was to establish the legal framework.
The level of technological advance was so great at this stage that “we can no longer be confined within particular countries, these structures are too small for our development”.
Inviting questions from the media, particularly from critics, he said: “As a revolutionary, I enjoy confrontation.”
Asked about his appearances at events organised by Declan Ganley’s anti-Lisbon group Libertas in Rome and Madrid prior to the European Parliament elections earlier this year, Mr Walesa said: “You may have noticed, I am a revolutionary and I always get involved in situations where there is an opposition and there is an adversary opinion.”
He said when he attended the Libertas gatherings he declared that he disagreed with them on Lisbon. "Actually, I agreed with them on their diagnosis of the situation in Europe but I fully disagreed with their way of treating the situation.”
Asked about reports that he had received approximately €100,000 from Libertas for his appearances, Mr Walesa laughed.
“That’s absurd. I don’t think I’ve ever seen, actually, €100,000. If you have [that amount] why don’t you share some of it with us?" he said. "But that’s not the issue, actually. I have been involved in meetings like this press conference here, or other conferences, out of my patriotic [duty]. I have been doing it out of my feelings and sense of solidarity because I want wisdom to prevail.”
For that reason, “no money was involved”. He said he had to make his living “somehow” and there were other occasions when he was paid, “but certainly I do not make money on the ideological struggle”.
There were times when it was appropriate for him to be paid, as “a way of making some pocket-money” in addition to his “monthly wage” which was only about €1,000 per month. “So I bet you get more,” he told the reporter who asked the question.
Describing Mr Walesa as “a powerful symbol”, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny recalled the images of the 1980s and the successful struggle of the Solidarity trade union to overthrow the Communist regime in Poland. He was “an iconic figure, the father of democracy in Eastern Europe”, Mr Kenny said.
Pointing out that “Lech Walesa built his career on the defence of workers’ rights”, Mr Kenny accused anti-treaty campaigners of telling a “barefaced lie” by claiming that the minimum wage would be cut to €1.84 if the Yes side were victorious.
After the press conference, Mr Kenny took Mr Walesa on a “walkabout” in St Stephen’s Green.
