Lech Wałęsa
“Mr. President, you are among us not only as a symbol but also as a person who still has much to say. You have never abandoned us, and everything you did was for our shared homeland. We gather here, in the region where you come from and where your roots are, to thank you for your entire beautiful life. Please accept our gratitude on behalf of more than two million residents of the voivodeship,” said Marshal Piotr Całbecki in his welcoming speech.
Lech Wałęsa was born on September 29, 1943, in Popowo near Lipno. In 1961, he graduated from the Vocational School in Lipno. Between 1961 and 1967, he worked as an electrician at the State Machinery Center in Łochocin and Lenie Wielkie. Except for his two-year military service in Koszalin (1963-1965), over twenty-two years of his life were connected to our region.
“Today, Poland is free, with secure and inviolable borders, strong and stable state structures, and a dynamic, modern economy that is achieving increasingly better results. These transformations would not have been possible without you—your courage and wisdom, persistence and sacrifice, determination and resilience,” said the chairman of the regional assembly, Krzysztof Sikora, in his laudatory speech.
“I am very grateful to have been recognized,” said Lech Wałęsa. “Our generation accomplished something unbelievable. From an era of land, borders, confrontation, and wars, this generation managed to enter the era of intellect, information, and globalization—without a shot fired, in solidarity. That’s what we achieved.”
Lech Wałęsa became the second honorary citizen in the history of our region. Earlier, in June of that year, the title was awarded to Cardinal Józef Glemp, Poland’s senior primate. The honorary title was officially conferred upon Lech Wałęsa on Tuesday, October 19, 2010, at the Marshal’s Office during a ceremonial session summarizing the work of the third-term regional assembly.
