Poland's ex-president Solidarity leader Walesa has COVID

Poland's former president and former Solidarity pro-democracy movement leader, Lech Walesa, says he has COVID-19

Virus Outbreak Walesa

(The Associated Press)

Poland’s former president and former Solidarity pro-democracy movement leader, Lech Walesa said Friday that he has COVID-19.

The 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said on Facebook that he was surprised to find out he is infected despite the three vaccination doses he has received.

“I can't believe it: I received 3 shots, .... (but) I'm infected. (I have a) headache, I can't warm up my body. I feel like my flesh is tearing away from the bones,” Walesa wrote.

“After this painful lesson I will never separate from my mask,” Walesa wrote.

Walesa was fitted with a pacemaker in 2008 and last year he had a heart surgery.

In the 1980s, Walesa led the nationwide Solidarity movement that eventually toppled Poland’s communist leaders through an election in 1989. He received the Nobel Prize in 1983.

Walesa served as democratic Poland's first popularly elected president in 1990-95.

Walesa is a strong critic of Poland's current right-wing government.

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The body of this story has been corrected to say Walesa wrote on Facebook, not on Twitter.

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