The United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus has awarded former Polish president and Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa. The Cross of Good Neighbourship was presented to his son, Bogdan Wałęsa, during the Kościuszko Forum in Gdańsk.
“It was Poland’s Solidarity movement and its leader, Lech Wałęsa, who demonstrated that true strength lies in unity. That collective will is capable of restoring people’s voice and power, and that any impunity eventually comes to an end, while the seemingly monolithic dictatorship inevitably begins to crumble,” Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet Pavel Latushka said during the award ceremony.
The Cross of Good Neighbourship is awarded by the United Transitional Cabinet for an exceptional contribution to developing relations between Belarus and other countries, as well as for promoting democratic change in Belarus. The decision to honour Lech Wałęsa was made in January.
“A nation’s freedom begins with its solidarity. In 2020, Belarusians demonstrated that strength to the entire world and continue to show solidarity today — in supporting political prisoners, helping one another inside Belarus and in exile, where we lend each other a hand every day.
We see how dictators and autocrats today have come to believe in their complete impunity. How they have decided that they can destroy human rights and threaten the security of their neighbours. But it is precisely the solidarity of free people and nations that is the real force capable of, and obliged to, put aggressive dictators in their place,” Pavel Latushka added.
