According to former President Lech Walesa, a record number of guests came to his and his wife Danuta's name day celebrations on Saturday.

Walesa invited 600 people to the party in Gdansk. Many prominent guests came, such as Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who said that he came to show solidarity with the former President and that he is not alone.

Other guests included Social Democracy of Poland leader Marek Borowski, Solidarity trade union head Janusz Sniadek, former internal minister Janusz Kaczmarek, as well as sports champion and member of parliament Iwona Guzowska.  

"I heard a lot of assurances that people are with me," said Walesa.

However, equally significant was who declined the invitation. This year, President Lech Kaczynski and his brother Jaroslaw, who heads the biggest opposition party Law and Justice, decided not to come. Walesa always invites persons who he is in conflict with, treating the celebration as an occasion for an informal reconciliation.

This is an especially hard time for Walesa, as a book on his past, written by two historians from the National Institute of Remembrance, comes out tomorrow. The book caused much turmoil even before its publication, as it suggests that Walesa was co-operating with the Communist Secret Services (SB) under the nickname "Bolek" and informed on his colleagues from the Gdansk Shipyard in 1970s, before he led the nation to subvert communism. 

The national broadcaster recently aired a documentary on Walesa's alleged cooperation with the secret services, which, according to the former President, was biased. National TV head Andrzej Urbanski invited Walesa to perform a televised address to the nation to comment on the documentary. The former president is to think the proposition over. (mo)