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From: C-afp@clari.net (AFP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.central,clari.world.gov.politics,clari.world.europe
Subject: Walesa will not run for presidency again
Organization: Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Qpoland-politicsURvqx_9FF@clari.net>
Lines: 16
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 7:25:12 PST
ACategory: international
Slugword: Poland-politics
Threadword: poland
Priority: regular
Approved: e.news@clari.net
Xref: news.cs.columbia.edu clari.world.europe.central:14321 clari.world.gov.politics:49281 clari.world.europe:44088

  	  				 
   WARSAW, Feb 15 (AFP) - Former Polish President Lech Walesa, the  
union leader who became Poland's first post-communist head of state, 
said Monday he does not plan to stand in presidential elections next 
year. 
   The former Solidarity leader, who was ousted by disillusioned  
voters in 1995 after his first five-year term in office, said Poland 
needs a stronger presidency but said he does not covet the post. 
   Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his battle for  
union rights and democracy in Poland, was succeeded by ex-communist 
Aleksander Kwasniewski, with whom he has chilly relations. 
   He has remained mostly quiet on the political scene since 1995,  
although he launched his own party, the Christian Democrats of the 
Third Republic, last September. 
  	   	

