DECLAN GANLEY has acknowledged a payment was made to former Polish president Lech Walesa to address Libertas delegates at their conference on Friday in Rome.
The Libertas founder said it was usual to pay a fee in such circumstances, and described Polish media queries about the exact amount as “offensive”.
Polish newspapers reported Mr Walesa was paid €50,000 for the address. The appearance of the Solidarity co-founder has caused controversy in Poland, particularly as it came a day after he addressed a conference of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Warsaw.
“Gentlemen do not talk about money to other gentlemen,” Mr Ganley told the daily newspaper Dziennik yesterday. “The word ‘honorarium’ includes the word ‘honour’. Let’s drop the subject.”
Asked by the Polish newspaper about claims he had received a €50,000 fee for the speech, Mr Walesa replied jokingly: “Are you selling me short? You must be joking. You’d have to work one year for the same amount of money that I can get for one lecture.” In a separate interview, Mr Walesa said he accepted the Libertas invitation because he is unable to live off his state pension.
Walesa’s son Jaroslaw, campaigning in the European elections for Poland’s ruling Civic Platform (PO), told The Irish Times his father’s presence in Rome should not be confused with an endorsement. “My father disagrees with Libertas, their opinions and how Libertas works . . . But he understands that these people exist and have the right to have their voice, even if he disagrees with them.”
Asked whether his father’s presence would improve the party’s chances in next month’s European elections, he replied: “They don’t exist in Poland – they will not have any seats in the European Parliament from Poland.”
Jaroslaw Walesa declined to comment on his father’s speaking fee, but said he didn’t accept payment for his EPP address the previous day because “he is supporting it and thinks the EPP is the right way to go”.
In his Rome address, Mr Walesa told Libertas delegates that the party had the chance to “change Europe for the better”.
“We need to heed the Libertas message and put the people back at the heart of the project,” he said.
Ahead of next month’s vote, Libertas has yet to register in Polish opinion polls, although the Walesa appearance has garnered them a lot of publicity in the Polish press.
The party has also won over three European election candidates: two defected from the opposition Law and Justice party and one from the governing Civic Platform. Leading political commentators have suggested that the association with Mr Walesa, a love-hate figure in Polish public life, could improve Libertas’s long-term political chances in Poland.
“Walesa has brought them into the mainstream and, even if people don’t vote for them in the European elections, many people may now consider them a serious political factor,” said Jacek Zakowski, columnist with the weekly magazine Polityka.