WARSAW, Poland (AP) 鈥 Lech Walesa, Poland's 80-year-old former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been hospitalized with a bad case of COVID-19, an aide said Tuesday.
A post on Walesa鈥檚 Facebook shows him on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask on, with a caption that says 鈥淚 have been hit by Covid.鈥 The aide, Marek Kaczmar, told Polish media that Walesa is seriously ill, but under good care in a hospital in Gdansk, the Baltic port city where he lives.
It鈥檚 Walesa鈥檚 second bout of COVID.
Starting in 1980, Walesa spearheaded Poland鈥檚 pro-democracy Solidarity movement that nine years later led to the peaceful ouster of communism from Poland and inspired other countries to shed Moscow鈥檚 domination.
In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1990-95 he served as democratic Poland鈥檚 first popularly elected president.
