WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Kornel Morawiecki, the father of Poland's prime minister and the country's most senior lawmaker who was also a dissident during the communist era, has died. He was 78.

Morawiecki died Monday following a long illness.

He was the father of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who on Saturday cut short an electoral campaign meeting, saying he needed to be with his father whose health had rapidly deteriorated.

The prime minister's office confirmed the death.

Kornel Morawiecki, who had the title of senior parliament speaker, was recently awarded Poland's highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, for decades of service to democratic Poland.

In the 1980s, he founded the Fighting Solidarity group, which was more uncompromising than the nationwide Solidarity movement in its struggle against communist rule.