Death of Tadeusz Mazowiecki

‘The best PM in Polish history’

Published on 28 October 2013 at 14:41

“Besides Lech Wałęsa, he was the most honoured figure of the Polish transformation,” writes Gazeta Wyborcza following the death, at age 86, of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first non-communist prime minister after the fall of regime in 1989, and co-founder of the Polish “Round Table Talks” – in which the government met the outlawed Solidarity trade union in a bid to calm growing social tensions.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki was free from the corrupting temptations of power, and probably the best PM in Polish history. Principled and non-opportunistic, in the 14 months of his premiership, he laid the foundations for a democratic and sovereign state, secured the border with Germany, initiated the first free elections, introduced Balcerowicz’s “shock therapy”, [a controversial plan which saw the rapid transformation from communist to capitalist economy] for which he took full responsibility, a price which he later paid at the polls. In presidential elections [in 1990] he did not garner enough votes to go through to the second round, but he went down in history.

The Warsaw daily stresses that “all this was achieved by a man who was nevertheless criticised for being too cautious and timid. His calmness, cautiousness and a feel for politics was often confused with slowness. These qualities were not very seductive but much needed amid hot Polish heads.”

In Paris, French daily Le Monde hails "Mazowiecki, when Europe was rocked." The paper pays homage to the role played by the former prime minister in "normalising democratic life" –

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Europe has just lost a remarkable man. He was an untiring advocate for the integration of Poland in a unified – no longer divided – Europe. He represents one of the noblest causes of the 20th Century. He was part intellectually, morally and politically part of Europe. The place Poland occupies today within the European Union, 10 years after joining, is striking proof of the virtue of the struggle led in the 1980s by Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Polish opponents gathered around Lech Wałęsa.

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