Lech Walesa cold shoulders Obama: the US president is clearly no Reagan

By Nile Gardiner:

Lech Walesa, the great hero of the Polish Solidarity movement, was in Washington earlier this week to receive the Ronald Reagan Centennial Award. He gave a terrific speech, which I attended, in which he referred to Cuba, one of the last remaining Marxist tyrannies, as a “Jurassic Park of Communism”. Walesa remains one of the great political icons of our time, a brave freedom fighter who stood up to the Soviet Empire and led his people to liberty.

It has been announced that Walesa has decided not to meet with Barack Obama during the president’s visit to Poland. He has declined an invitation to join a group of Polish leaders in Warsaw tomorrow who will greet the president. Walesa is reportedly traveling to Italy for a biblical festival instead, and told Poland’s TVN24:

It’s difficult to tell journalists what you’d like to say to the president of a superpower. This time I won’t tell him, I won’t meet him, it doesn’t suit me.

I can see why Mr. Walesa has declined to meet with Barack Obama. The Obama administration’s approach to Poland, an important US ally, has been largely dismissive and lukewarm. In contrast to George W. Bush, who went out of his way to build friendships in eastern and central Europe, Barack Obama has paid little attention to ‘New Europe’, and has been far more interested in appeasing the Russians and “resetting” relations with Moscow.

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