Hero Walesa pleads for Yes vote
The man who led the inspirational movement which ousted totalitarian regimes across the former East Bloc in the 1980s, said he believed the ordinary people had emerged victorious from the 40-year Cold War.
But he said that, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a period of official neglect of the fledgling democracies and market economies had dominated international politics.
Mr Walesa said the opportunity for the 10 former communist states to join the European Union was a dramatic reversal of this trend of neglect. “Our countries are not looking for or expecting alms,” he said, adding that Poland had spent 12 years making painful economic and social adjustments to prepare for EU membership.
The Solidarity founder and first non-communist president of Poland said he accepted there were flaws in the Nice Treaty, but he appealed to Irish voters to overlook these and seek to improve matters later. “What matters most right now is its overall message which brings about stability and peace on our continent without dividing walls and obvious disproportionalities,” Mr Walesa said.
The Solidarity founder appealed for our help so Polish people could secure a share in the EU’s peace and prosperity by being allowed join under the Nice Treaty arrangements.
“It brings about prospects of development for the nations, including these, which like my Polish people, seem to have carried more of the burden of the tragic historic experience than others,” he said.
In a message relayed through the Yes campaigners, the Irish Alliance for Europe, Mr Walesa concluded with a direct appeal to Irish voters. “Your voice of support for the Nice document will be at the same time the voice of European solidarity and an act of great historic responsibility by the Irish people,” he said.
