US Edition THE career of Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity leader, was in tatters yesterday after a crushing defeat in Poland's presidential election. The man chiefly responsible for ending communist rule polled a mere 0.8 per cent of the vote.
His humiliation was all the more painful because Aleksander Kwasniewski, who was re-elected, is a former senior apparatchik. He had 54 per cent of the vote. Mr Walesa polled less than Andrzej Lepper, a populist farmers' leader, and ended up in seventh place.
The result indicates how low Mr Walesa's popularity has fallen since the last presidential election five years ago, when he lost to Mr Kwasniewski in the second round by 500,000 votes.
Poles have been increasingly alienated by what many see as Mr Walesa's unsophisticated and confrontational style. The qualities which proved so effective in combating the communist regime are felt to be unsuitable now.
His opponents proved to have far greater mastery of television and sound bites. Mr Walesa told reporters that, despite the result, he had no intention of retiring. That was not his style, he said, and he would be ready to help his country again if necessary.