Walesa, Lech

Polish trade union leader, president of Poland 1990–95. One of the founding members of the Solidarity free-trade-union movement, which emerged to challenge the communist government during strikes in the Gdansk shipyards in 1980. Walesa led the movement to become a national force. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983 for his work with the Solidarity movement. After his election as president, he gradually became estranged from Solidarity.

In 1990 he became president but lost his power base due to his apparent inability to work with the freely elected parliament and conflicts with previous allies and advisers, most notably Tadeusz Mazowiecki. In 1995 he was defeated in the presidential elections by the Social Democrat Aleksander Kwasniewski. In 1997 he helped to form the Solidarity Electoral Action Party, which, led by the new Solidarity leader, Marian Krzaklewski, won the parliamentary elections. But in 2000 Walesa received only 1% of the vote in the presidential election and subsequently retired from politics. In 2004, Gdansk international airport was renamed Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport to commemorate his achievements.