Former Polish president, Solidarity leader Walesa has COVID

Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader who played a leading role in the fall of Communism, has coronavirus, he said on Friday. Originally a shipyard electrician in the northern port city of Gdansk, Walesa became a symbol of the historic changes that ended the Cold War, leading the Solidarity trade union movement which brought about the switch to a free-market economy in 1989.

Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader who played a leading role in the fall of Communism, has coronavirus, he said on Friday.

Originally a shipyard electrician in the northern port city of Gdansk, Walesa became a symbol of the historic changes that ended the Cold War, leading the Solidarity trade union movement which brought about the switch to a free-market economy in 1989. "I can't believe it ... I am infected," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate wrote on Facebook.

Walesa, 78, has suffered from ill health in recent years and underwent a heart operation in 2021. Walesa served as president from 1990 to 1995, the first leader of post-Communist Poland.

In recent years he was a staunch critic of Poland's ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS), who in turn have been deeply critical of the transition from Communism to a free-market economy that Walesa led.