PM Morawiecki pays tribute to late PM Olszewski

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday laid flowers at the tomb of former Polish Prime Minister Jan Olszewski, marking the former PM's 90th birthday anniversary.

Jan Olszewski headed the Polish government from December 6, 1991 to June 5, 1992. In the communist era, notably in the 1960s and 1970s, he was a defence attorney in the political trials of oppositionists. In the 1980s, when the nationwide Solidarity movement emerged in defiance of the communist authorities, Olszewski became an advisor to what was the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc and to its leader Lech Wałęsa.

When communism collapsed in 1989, Olszewski became a political leader and, later, an advisor to the late President Lech Kaczyński. He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's top distinction, in 2009.

Olszewski died on February 7, 2019, at the age of 88.