Defeated Walesa to Replace Leadership of his Party

Lech Walesa has announced changes in his Christian Democracy of the Third Republic. The former president also intends to settle accounts with those people who - according to him – had been slandering him for the past 20 years. "In connection with such low support, I am entrusting the whole party to another leadership; you can't get anything more from the old one," Lech Walesa said in an interview for Radio Gdansk. Asked if he was taken aback by his election outcome he said: "Yes and no. This is how I was appraised but I don't think that what I was advocating was off the mark or untrue. But such are the ways of the world; life goes on." Walesa also explained what contributed to his election result. "It has been 20 years of a negative campaign against me. Almost every Pole got a leaflet with libels against me. Almost everyone heard about my activities as a collaborator [with the secret services], letters by [former friend and union activist Anna] Walentynowicz and even letters that I'm a Jew," the former president said. Walesa also appraised [Solidarity leader] Marian Krzaklewski's election outcome "Mr Krzaklewski is a weak leader; it's a disastrous result for him. It's the end of the AWS, whatever you say about this. You have to bring in order: political parties are there to rule and trade unions are there to defeat workers' rights. As long as it's going to be different, we'll always lose," Walesa says.