WARSAW (Sputnik) — The former president posted a photo from the hospital on his Facebook page. Walesa’s son Yaroslav told reporters that his father feels weak and it is yet unknown when he will be released from treatment at the department of cardiovascular diseases of the University Hospital of Gdansk.
Walesa was the leader of the former trade union Solidarity, which was founded in 1980 at the Gdansk Shipyard. Solidarity became a major opposition movement in Poland and its activity led to semi-free elections in 1989, with a union-led coalition government being formed later that year. The following year, the Polish presidential elections ended in a decisive victory for Walesa. He served as the president of Poland from 1990 to 1995.
The Poles associate Walesa's name with the period of restructuring, recovery and the new industrialization of the country. He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983.