Twelve weeks into the presidency he fought so hard to win, Lech Walesa already says he is looking forward to the day he can retire from politics and go fishing.
”I don`t want to be a politician my entire life. That would be unbearable,” Walesa said last week during a spirited 40-minute interview in Belvedere Palace, the Polish White House.
”It`s a disastrous thing (to be president). I don`t like it. But I`ve no other choice. I will try to escape as fast as possible.”
But ”as fast as possible” will be 1996, the expiration of Walesa`s five-year term as Poland`s first popularly elected president. Until then, he says, he intends to ”keep a controlling hand over everything.”
Walesa`s gloom about the burdens of the presidency probably were caused in part by a series of political setbacks he has suffered since taking office Dec. 22. But those setbacks should fade this week when the hero of Solidarity returns to the United States for another of his now legendary triumphant tours.
A year ago, on his last visit, Walesa received a standing ovation from Congress and won the hearts of millions around the world by proclaiming the death of communism and the birth of a new spirit in Europe.
This time, Walesa will concentrate more on substance than symbolism. His six-day trip to Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago is built around meetings with key politicians and business executives who can help Walesa promote much-needed U.S. investment in Poland.
”It`s in America`s own best interest to take a leading role (in Poland),” Walesa said, obviously rehearsing his sales pitch. ”I have the feeling so many people would like to squeeze something out of America. But what I want is the business. I want them to participate in a place where something is being created.”
Walesa is to arrive in Washington on Tuesday for a three-day visit that will include meetings with President Bush, congressional leaders, business executives and Polish survivors of the Holocaust during World War II.
Then Walesa is to fly to Los Angeles for a 24-hour stay and lunch with former President Ronald Reagan. The final leg of his trip, March 23 to 26, is to be spent in Chicago in another round of meetings with government and business leaders as well as Polish-Americans.
Even before he left, Walesa`s trip was hailed as a triumph when the U.S. and six other nations agreed Friday to forgive half the $33 billion Poland owes foreign governments.
The agreement was reached by the so-called Paris Club, an informal group of the most important creditor countries.
Led by the U.S., Western nations are trying to help Poland make the transition from a centrally planned economy to one based on a free market.
”This revolution which we pilot must be successful,” Walesa said before the debt reduction was announced. ”We will not complete our reforms as long as we have the noose of the debt on our necks.”
Walesa said Poland`s economic changes hold the key to peace and stability in Europe.
”We have the proof,” he said, citing the 30,000 residents of Albania, Europe`s last Communist state and its poorest, who recently crossed the Adriatic Sea into southern Italy.
”If this reform is not successful in Poland, this emigration will turn into a flight of millions,” Walesa said.
Walesa said the importance of Poland`s changes was underscored by the failing economy in the neighboring Soviet Union.
”The Soviet Union is under reconstruction. It`s in pieces,” Walesa said. ”There`s no concept how to resolve their economic problems. They`re still looking for solutions.”
The Soviets maintain 50,000 troops in Poland, and Walesa has called for their withdrawal as early as the end of this year. But he also indicated last week that there might be room for compromise.
Since becoming president, Walesa has had a series of embarrassing political setbacks on domestic issues. Solidarity rejected the man he had picked to succeed him as chairman.
Parliament last week refused his plea to hold elections in spring. And strikes or threatened strikes have spread to almost every important group of workers.
A poll released last week showed Walesa`s popularity had dropped 11 points, from 63 percent to 52 percent, since his election.
”You have to remember that I`ve changed the government, the prime minister, and all the new people are still learning their jobs,” he said. ”I have had to take the burdens on myself to let the government concentrate on all important issues.
”People will say I`m doing a bad job, but it`s all because I want the government to prepare itself better. When the government is stronger, I will set sail again. I will win everything which I have lost. In two months time I want to have regained my popularity-95 percent.”
Whether he does or not, Walesa insists he ultimately wants out of politics.
”Then I`ll return to the years which were destroyed for me,” he says with only a trace of remorse for the years in which he went from an unemployed shipyard electrician to a Nobel Prize winner.
