Former leader of the Solidarity trade union, Lech Wałęsa has resigned from the European Solidarity Centre board just weeks before the foundation stone for the centre is to be laid in Gdansk.

In early March, Wałęsa objected that the ECS was to be headed by 42-year-old Basil Kerski after he had supported the candidature of erstwhile opposition activist Bogdan Lis.  

The centre,, at the site of the Gdansk Shipyard which saw the historic strikes in 1980 which led to the forming of the first independent trade union in the communist bloc, will monitor human rights observance around the world and disseminate ideas of democratic freedom and independence.

A representative for Gdańsk president Paweł Adamowicz said that he was “very sorry” over Lech Wałęsa’s decision and hoped that for a politician of his stature no decision was final.

Basil Kerski, born in 1969 in Gdańsk has an Iraqi father and a Polish mother but is a German national resident in Berlin.

Since 1999 he has been editor in chief of the Polish-German magazine “Dialog”.  

The foundation stone laying ceremony for the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk has been announced for May 14, but Lech Wałęsa has already said he will not be attending. (ek/pg)