Sent to Trent. “If we hadn’t joined NATO and Europe today the war would have reached Poland too. Now we support Ukraine and want to once and for all put Russia right. Russia has the wrong political system. No Russian boy knows if the next day he will be called to fight and die ”. Blue shirt with the inscriptions Konstytucja (Constitution in Polish) and Solidarnosc, a yellow and blue flag of Ukraine and a brooch of the Madonna pinned under the collar, the former Polish president Lech Walesa, 79, talks about his country, the war in Ukraine and of the future of the European Union sunk into the white seat of the Trento social theater like an old uncle ready to dispense his advice but also to reproach those who only pretend to listen to him. “I arrived at the last moment because as a practicing Catholic I’ve been to mass before” he confesses, receiving a first long applause from the audience of the Festival of Economics. “The world has always been divided and the strongest have always incorporated the smallest – he then analyzes, answering those who ask him what he thinks of the Chinese hypothesis of a freezing of the status quo with the territories annexed by the Russians in Ukraine which would remain in the hands of Fly-. This was how it worked until the end of the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we still see this logic in action on the part of Russia and China: forcibly including more fragile countries. The developed countries, on the other hand, exercise their influence through organizations such as NATO, the EU and the UN”. Then, looking to the future and to the most necessary actions today, he adds: “Practice, at this point, tells us that destiny has given us the task of abolishing oppositions in tiny states and realities, because technology does not respect these borders, The pandemic proved it to us. The great enlightened states of Europe should realize this and try to tackle together all the topics that are too complex to be tackled at the state level. We need to define what needs to be debated at the supranational level and what resources will be needed. But to do this you need a leadership that I don’t see today”. He clears out the criticism of all populisms, starting with those that have taken hold in his country. “In Poland we felt too safe and we allowed demagogues and populists to take power. To the Italians and the Europeans I say: take part in the elections and take a good look before putting a cross on a name”.
The starting point of his political reflection is the eternal struggle between communism and capitalism, but in his analysis Walesa also tries to go further. “Communism on paper is better, and for this reason many young people are fascinated by it but I have to be careful. Communism has failed in every attempt made, so eliminate communism” argues the former Polish president, adding that capitalism, the system that has been successful, however has some critical points: “It wins with tricks, it has been described as a race of mice”. For this reason, he continues, “the new capitalism should leave the free market and correct everything else”, explaining that “everyone must live, even the unemployed”. In this framework, for Walesa the solution can be found in broadening the vision: “If we understand that our interest is continental or even global, our vision changes”, and we need to start by giving an answer to three questions: “What foundation must be the glue between us in Europe? Which economic system? How to deal with populism?”. And in this context, clarity is also needed on the part of the parties, because today we have “left-wing parties that have right-wing programs and vice versa. Those who always get away with it are the parties of Christian inspiration but in these parties there is not even a Christian ”, he adds with a joke.
Claiming the pacifist experience of Solidarnosc, who fought against “the USSR and the Warsaw Pact without even a tank”, he then reiterated his distrust of a primarily military solution. “I don’t see a war distinguished by peace. In Ukraine I see a very brutal showdown that will not give any solution: even if Ukraine wins in ten years it will happen again. Russia will use years to regain strength as it already did after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Another Stalin will come, another Putin. The only chance for peace is for Russian citizens to change their political system with our help. And this objective cannot be achieved with missiles”. A reasoning projected towards the future, because, with the invasion of Ukraine, “Putin made a very serious mistake by turning himself against the entire developed world – concludes Walesa-. Our children and grandchildren will not forgive us for such a mistake. It is not a question of beating Russia militarily but of persuading every single Russian by explaining to him that for his good a change of the political system in Russia is necessary ”.