GDANSK, Poland (AFP) – Polish communist-era opposition icon and Nobel laureate Lech Walesa is being treated in hospital for gastric problems and a fever, he told AFP on Thursday.
"I haven't been feeling well since Tuesday. I had a 39-degree fever, gastric trouble and was shivering," Walesa said, adding that he finally decided to go to hospital on Wednesday.
"I'm on a drip. The doctors managed to bring down the fever but haven't yet given a diagnosis and want to keep me in hospital until at least Sunday," the 67-year-old said.
"I hope I'll be back in the saddle next week," he added, noting that he had to cancel planned visits to Italy and Romania.
Shipyard electrician Walesa was leader of Solidarity, a union born during a 1980 strike in the Baltic port of Gdansk that won grudging recognition from Poland's communist regime.
The authorities backtracked in 1981 and imposed martial law to crush Solidarity, but it kept alive underground. Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
Solidarity returned to the fore in 1989, negotiating an election deal with the regime and scoring a victory helped bring down the entire Iron Curtain by 1991.
In 1990, Walesa became Poland's first democratically-elected president since World War II, serving one five-year term.
He has remained a respected democracy activist, and recently travelled to Tunisia to offer know-how for its transition.
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