Lech Walesa, the head of the Poland Solidarity Movement, who helped end Moscow’s grip on Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War, joined the former Polish political prisoners on Monday to send a passionate letter to President Trump expressing “horror and disgust” to his President Volodymyr Zelensky’s reprimand From Ukraine last week, saying that it reminded them of their meetings with officials of intimidation of the Communist era.
They wrote in Polish that they were “terrified by the fact that the atmosphere in the oval office during this conversation reminded us that of which we remember the interrogations of the security service and the hearing rooms in the communist courts”.
“The prosecutors and judges, commanded by the almighty communist political police, also explained to us that they owned all the cards and that we did not have one,” said the letter, a reference to the oval office of President Trump reprimands Mr. Zelensky that “you do not have the cards.”
The communist officials, continued the letter, “demanded that we stop our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffered because of us”. Friday, President Zelensky insisted in the oval office that security guarantees were necessary to conclude a peace agreement with Russia, Mr. Trump slapped it, saying: “You play with the lives of millions of people.”
The letter – signed by Mr. Walesa, the chief of the 80s of Solidarity Trade Union, and more than 30 former Polish political prisoners – was Posted on Mr. Wallesa’s Facebook pageAs well as an English translation sometimes imprecise and an old photograph of him meeting a smiling M. Trump dressed in tuxedo.
He expressed angry disbelief that Mr. Trump and Vice-President JD Vance had reprimanded Mr. Zelensky for not having thanked them enough for helping Ukraine.
“Gratitude is due to the Ukrainian heroic soldiers who shed their blood to defend the values of the free world,” said Walesa, who was the first elected president of Poland after the collapse of communism, and other signatories said, adding this. “We do not understand how the head of a country which is a symbol of the free world cannot see this.”
While many European leaders were dismayed and deeply alarmed by the treatment of Mr. Zelensky in the oval office, they avoided criticizing Mr. Trump in public, fearing to stir his anger and deepen his anger against Ukraine. Mr. Wallesa’s letter brought the feelings of Europe to the open air, in particular its alarm that the United States under Mr. Trump moves away from the defense of dictatorial intimidators by their side.
The letter recalled the vital role that President Ronald Reagan had played to support the Moscow opponents in the 1980s and cause the collapse of the Soviet Union. “President Reagan was aware that in Soviet Russia and in the countries she has conquered, millions of enslaved people suffered, including thousands of political prisoners who paid their sacrifice to defend democratic values with freedom,” he said.
Compared that the United States does not turn their back on decades of support for opponents of tyranny, the letter warned: “The history of the 20th century shows that each time the United States wanted to maintain the distance from democratic values and its European allies, it ends up threatening.”
Anatol Magdziarz Contributed reports.