MUNICH, Germany -- Politics is a thankless profession. There is scarcely a leader in Europe at the moment who is popular with the voters and respected for doing a good job.


German Chancellor Helmut Kohl scraped home with a wafer-thin majority in last November's elections and is widely expected to be forced into a coalition with the opposition Social Democrats this year. French President Fran?ois Mitterrand is finishing his 14th and final year in office with his Socialist Party in tatters and corruption scandals growing by the week.


In Britain, John Major recently sank to the lowest popularity ratings of a serving prime minister since records started. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi has just been turned out of office, and Spain's Felipe Gonzalez is drowning in a crisis over whether he sanctioned assassinations of Basque separatists.


Further east, Boris Yeltsin's democratic reputation has been gravely damaged by the crackdown in Chechnya, and governments have fallen in the last nine months in Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.


On most of these leaders, one need not waste too much sympathy. But there is one politician in Europe whose fall from grace appears unjustified. He is President Lech Walesa of Poland.


Walesa's standing in the opinion polls is so low that he seems certain to lose next November's presidential elections, if he decides to run. It will be an ignominious end for a man who ought to be honored as a brave and inspirational leader. It is not just that he did more than anyone to convert Poland from communism to democracy, but that he did so without ever abandoning his commitment to the principle of peaceful change.


The Communist authorities launched endless provocations against his Solidarity movement throughout the 1980s, but Walesa always refused to rise to the bait. By ensuring that democracy arrived peacefully, he gave Poland's new political system a vital element of stability that is lacking in many other post-Communist countries.


Moreover, Poland's economic transition from state control to the free market has been more successful than almost anywhere else in Central and Eastern Europe. Walesa showed boldness and vision in choosing a radical version of reform that inflicted much hardship on Poles at the start but is finally reaping dividends.


So why is Walesa in the doghouse with the voters in Poland? One reason is that, for many Poles, life continues to be difficult. The election victory of the reformed Communists in September 1993 demonstrated that millions of people had found the economic changes too painful.


Also, Walesa strikes many Poles as irrational, inconsistent, unrefined, devious and even dictatorial. The artful, impetuous qualities that served him well as Solidarity's leader in the 1980s seem out of place now that he is head of state.


A third reason, though, is the spirit of revenge that drives Walesa's opponents. Both the former Communists and Walesa's old Solidarity colleagues seem unable to forgive him for having been such a towering figure on Poland's political stage. Since 1980, the humble shipyard electrician from Gdansk has made everyone look small in comparison. They will not rest until they have drummed him out of office.


Walesa need not worry. His place in history is secure, and he will be remembered long after his opponents have faded into obscurity.