Tributes paid to former First Secretary Edward Gierek who died on Sunday
Former communist leader Edward Gierek, who was removed from power by Eastern
Europe's first independent labor movement, died on Sunday at the age of 88.
Gierek was considered one of the most liberal communist leaders of the
former Soviet bloc. His ten years in power are recalled warmly, even though
he left Poland deep in debt, which the government is still repaying 12 years
after the downfall of his regime. "Many Poles remember the Gierek era as the
happiest time in their lives," said Leszek Miller, leader of the opposition
Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), a party of reformed communists. Lech Walesa,
the Solidarity founder who was elected president after communism fell in
1989, said, "Among Poland's communist first secretaries, Gierek did the
least harm to Poland. He opened up Poland to the world, but at the same time
dragged the country into terrible debt." (Reuters; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 5;
Zycie, p. 16; Rzeczpospolita, p. A6) A.K.
