Tolland, Conn. — A Connecticut state trooper who's a local of Poland received fairly the shock whereas responding to an SUV with a flat tire Wednesday - a passenger within the automobile occurred to be former Polish President Lech Walesa.
State police mentioned Trooper Lukasz Lipert arrived to the decision in Tolland and was greeted by Walesa, who had spoken in Hartford on Tuesday as a part of his U.S. tour advocating for help for refugees who've fled Ukraine throughout the battle with Russia.
Lipert, 35, who got here to the U.S. when he was 18, instructed The Hartford Courant that he spoke with Walesa in Polish about their homeland and the anti-communist motion Walesa helped lead.
"It was positively an amazing alternative to satisfy the person who had a voice throughout these occasions," Lipert mentioned. "It was positively an amazing expertise."
Walesa, 78, led the nationwide Solidarity motion in Poland within the Nineteen Eighties that finally toppled Poland's communist leaders by an election in 1989. He obtained a Nobel Prize in 1983 and served as Poland's first popularly elected president from 1990 to 1995. He's a powerful critic of Poland's present right-wing authorities.
A automobile service employee modified the tire and Walesa continued on his method down I-84. Certainly one of his subsequent stops is an occasion in Boston on Monday.