- Title: Lech Walesa sees support for Polish gov't ebbing as money runs out
- Date: 24th November 2016
- Summary: ARLAMOW, POLAND (NOVEMBER 18, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIOR OF ARLAMOW HOTEL POLISH AND EU FLAGS FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, GIVING INTERVIEW WALESA JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "While the populism and demagoguery are at work, there isn't much that can be done, because there would be clash, they (the government) would strongly defend using their army (newly established territorial defence forces)." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "We need to wait until populism and demagoguery stop working, until they (the government) run out of money to spend. Then the masses will turn to those who oppose what is going on in Poland right now." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "Poland used to have a bad reputation in the past, we were seen in different ways there (abroad). We fixed it and things became fine but now they are doing the same again." WALESA GIVING INTERVIEW WALESA WALESA GIVING AN INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "They (PiS) are giving everything away. When the whole world is working more, we are working less. We are going be uncompetitive, they will dismantle our country." WALESA, GIVING INTERVIEW JOURNALISTS WALESA GIVING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "Generally, we have forgotten what democracy is and this caused us to stop believing in it so much." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "The world today is searching (for solutions), Poland went too far right in the search for solutions, in the U.S. a strange man wins the election and soon there will be problems in France and in other countries." WALESA GIVING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) FORMER POLISH PRESIDENT AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, LECH WALESA, SAYING: "He (Putin) has had enough already, he has experienced such losses already that he is now thinking how to get out of this." WALESA GIVING INTERVIEW
- Embargoed: 9th December 2016 10:26
- Keywords: Poland Walesa Kaczynski Trump Putin
- Location: ARLAMOW, POLAND
- City: ARLAMOW, POLAND
- Country: Poland
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00159T05DL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Poland's ruling conservatives are undoing the progress the country has made during more than 25 years of democracy but they will be swept from power once they run out of cash to fund their welfare programmes, Lech Walesa said in an interview given in Arlamow, southern Poland in a mountain hotel where he was once imprisoned by the communist authorities and where now he spends holidays.
Walesa, who led the Solidarity trade union that overthrew communism in 1989 and became Poland's first freely elected president since World War Two, also urged critics of the government to support a new grassroots pro-democracy movement.
"While the populism and demagoguery are at work, there isn't much that can be done, because there would be clash, they (the government) would strongly defend using their army (newly established territorial defence forces)," said Walesa, now 73.
"We need to wait until populism and demagoguery stop working, until they (the government) run out of money to spend. Then the masses will turn to those who oppose what is going on in Poland right now."
The right-wing, eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) won a landslide victory in last year's election on a platform of increased social spending, Catholic family values and nationalism.
The government remains popular but the economy is slowing and its efforts to reform the constitutional court and assert control over state media have drawn criticism from the European Union and rights groups.
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski once worked with Walesa in the Solidarity movement but they later fell out. Kaczynski accuses Walesa of collaborating with the communist regime and then of presiding over a sharp rise in economic inequality after 1989.
Walesa, a Nobel peace laureate, has retired from active politics but remains an outspoken and divisive figure in Poland.
He told Reuters opponents of the PiS government should support the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD), which has organised anti-government protests this year.
Walesa also criticised the government's recent costly decision to cut Poland's retirement age - to 60 for women and to 65 for men, reversing a phased move under the previous government towards 67 for all Poles.
"They (PiS) are giving everything away. When the whole world is working more, we are working less. We are going be uncompetitive, they will dismantle our country," Walesa said.
Economists say PiS has the financing for its welfare plans, including a near-universal child subsidy, in the near term, but slowing growth could threaten their sustainability.
The Polish economy slowed to 2.5 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year from 4 percent in the last three months of 2015. Economists polled by Reuters expect the economy to expand by 3.1 percent in 2016 and 3.4 percent in 2017.
Walesa said Poland's issues with democratic standards were part of a broader populist revolt that included Donald Trump's election as U.S. president and the growing popularity of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
"Generally, we have forgotten what democracy is and this caused us to stop believing in it so much," he said.
"The world today is searching (for solutions), Poland went too far right in the search for solutions, in the U.S. a strange man wins the election and soon there will be problems in France and in other countries."
Asked about Russia, Poland's historic foe, Walesa said he expected President Vladimir Putin to hold back on further military action in eastern Europe after the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
"He (Putin) has had enough already, he has experienced such losses already that he is now thinking how to get out of this," Walesa said, adding that the cost of Moscow's conflict with the West was becoming too heavy to bear. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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