The Warsaw Regional Court has ordered former President Lech Wałęsa to apologize to Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński. The court ruled on Tuesday that Wałęsa must publicly retract his previous statements made about Kaczyński.

The lawsuit stems from comments made by Wałęsa in 2016, during which he referred to Kaczyński as a “creator of discord” and accused him of “destroying Poland.” Kaczyński subsequently sued Wałęsa for defamation.

The court found that Wałęsa's statements were unfounded and damaging to Kaczyński's reputation. The ruling mandates that Wałęsa issue a written apology within 14 days of the judgment becoming legally binding. The apology must be published in a prominent national newspaper and on Wałęsa's official Facebook page.

Lech Wałęsa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a key figure in the Solidarity movement that led to the collapse of communism in Poland, has often been critical of the current government led by PiS. Jarosław Kaczyński, on the other hand, is the influential chairman of PiS and a dominant figure in Polish politics.

This ruling adds another chapter to the ongoing political tensions and legal disputes between prominent figures from different eras of Polish democracy.