Walesa Again Elected Head of Solidarity : Poland: He easily survives complaints about his personal style and makes tantalizing references to being national president.

Lech Walesa was reelected chairman of the Solidarity trade union Saturday, easily overcoming a common complaint against him of dictatorial behavior in the union’s affairs to win more than 77% of the vote.

The opposition, two union members from Wroclaw and Lodz, was, in fact, only token, with Walesa himself seconding the nomination of one of his nominal rivals.

“I am very glad,” he said after his election, “but we are now faced with more difficult tasks than those we have already behind us.”

Union members are concerned with Poland’s rising unemployment, now standing at about 300,000 and increasing at a rate of about 25,000 a week, as the government of Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki--officially backed by Solidarity--presses forward with a strenuous austerity and economic restructuring plan.

The debates over the union’s presidency seemed to have more to do with personality than with clashes over political and economic issues. In a question-and-answer session with delegates before the vote, more of the questions seemed designed to needle Walesa than to take serious issue with his sometimes vague statements on the Mazowiecki government’s handling of the economy.

“The way of a pure trade union would be to propose a general strike right now, a new prime minister, a new government,” Walesa said, referring to the constant reports of factory closings and rising unemployment. “Well, if we did that, we would be killing Poland.”

Referring to his style of leadership, he said: “You have to have many people to build a car, but you have only one driver. I am the driver. Don’t grab at my wheel!”

There was no question that anyone was about to wrest the wheel from Walesa, whose name, of course, is indelibly linked with Eastern Europe’s first free-trade union and the sweeping political reforms led by the movement. The final vote was 362 for Walesa, 52 for Andrzej Slowik of Wroclaw and 25 for Tomasz Wojcik of Lodz.

Walesa continued to drop tantalizing references to the Polish presidency, now resting with former Communist Party leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. Walesa’s aides have said that the Solidarity leader has set his sights on the Belvedere Palace, the president’s office, although he has not yet decided how to challenge Jaruzelski for the job.

“I don’t think this will happen,” Walesa said. “There are too many people who would like this job, too many things in the way. But think of it! Your pal from the union, president! I would invite you all to Warsaw, and we could have our pictures taken on a sunny day. A president from the union! And it would be a victory not for me but for all of us.”

In a press conference after Saturday’s vote, he added: “I am not running for the throne. I’m not sure I can do it. I’m just provoking discussion.”

He apologized for his occasional explosions of temper at the union’s congress, outbursts that often seemed to mystify a good many of the delegates.