Lech Wałęsa to AFP: Donald Trump is either a traitor or a brilliant leader

Lech Wałęsa, the legendary founder of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, gave a widely commented interview to the French news agency AFP. The statement primarily concerned the role Donald Trump plays in the context of the war in Ukraine. Wałęsa admitted that at first glance, the US president's actions may give the impression of submissiveness towards the Kremlin. According to the former president, such a stance allows one to label Trump a "traitor" who acts in Russia's favor. At the same time, the Nobel laureat outlined a second, much more lenient interpretation, suggesting that Trump may be demonstrating exceptional prudence by not wanting to provoke Russia into a nuclear escalation. Lech Wałęsa has remained a significant voice in international politics for decades; in 1989, as the second foreigner who was not a head of state, he addressed the US Congress, cementing his status as a global symbol of the fight for freedom. In more recent statements that appeared after the publication of the AFP interview, the Polish Nobel laureate also referred to his own political past. He confessed that he has "pangs of conscience" over the failure to implement secret plans that could have changed the balance of power in Central Europe. Although he did not specify their details, he admitted that the current geopolitical situation leads him to bitter reflections on the missed opportunities of the transition period. Wałęsa emphasized that Trump, by avoiding open hostility towards Putin, may be pursuing a de-escalation strategy that will protect the world from a third world war, although the price of this pragmatism is currently being questioned by the Western alliance. 1983 — the year Lech Wałęsa received the Nobel Prize Media analyses indicate that Wałęsa deliberately uses such strong and contradictory terms to provoke public debate. It has been noted that his rhetoric has evolved from being unequivocally critical towards a more nuanced hypothesis about Trump's "outstanding leadership." The former Polish president seems to suggest that history will judge the American leader through the prism of the final outcome of the conflict in Ukraine, not the current diplomatic narrative. The entire statement fits Wałęsa's characteristic style of commenting on the world, in which personal experiences from the fight against a totalitarian system mix with a current analysis of power dynamics between superpowers. „Il n'est pas exclu qu'il soit un dirigeant extraordinairement intelligent et responsable, qui ne veut tout simplement pas conduire à une guerre nucléaire.” (It is not excluded that he is an extraordinarily intelligent and responsible leader, who simply does not want to lead to a nuclear war.) — Lech Wałęsa „Pewne rzeczy widziałem inaczej, miałem swój tajny plan, którego nie udało się w pełni wdrożyć.” (I saw certain things differently, I had my secret plan, which was not fully implemented.) — Lech Wałęsa