ABSTRACT
Visiting journalists or dignatories were provided with a picture service by a resident photographer who produced photos of a smiling Lech Walesa and guest, in a matter of hours. Their claims are largely ignored because they’re regarded as bitter, having been left behind in the shadow of Walesa’s rise to international fame. Walesa laughs at the allegations of his former friends. Jacek Majiarski was once part of Walesa’s kitchen cabinet in the days when the two Jaroslaw Kaczynski brothers ruled the roost at the Belweder. The former head of Walesa’s chancellery, Kaczynski, told Gazetta Wyborcza that ‘Walesa can be dangerous for the country. Both Kaczynski and a former Secretary of State for National Security, Jacek Merkel, claim that Walesa went very close to recognizing the Soviet coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. During the presidential campaign in 1990, allegations that Walesa behaved like a dictator were voiced in the foreign media.
