Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in an interview with TVP Info, denied reports that he is preparing to run in next year's Polish presidential election.
“No. I heard some speculation again (…) and I say clearly: No, I will not run for the presidential elections.”
Tusk answered a journalist's question about his potential presidential candidate's plans in an interview Thursday evening.
Image: Deposit images
He added that he has “a lot to do” as prime minister, and “months or even years are not enough to clean everything.” The government coalition led by Tusk took power last November.
The Prime Minister did not rule out his support for the re-election of Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, one of the vice-chairmen of the Civic Platform party that leads the government coalition. Tusk said: “I know that Warsaw is close to his heart (…), so the matter will depend on his decision, but if he decides, he will have my full support.” In the previous presidential election of 2020, Trzaskowski was the main rival of Andrzej Duda, who was finally re-elected at that time.
“Why is this a scam? After all, no one believes it anyway,” Piotr Glinski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and Heritage Protection in the previous government, wrote on X about Tusk's statement on Thursday evening.
Malgorzata Baborka, state secretary in the Polish presidential office, told conservative radio channel WNET on Friday morning that she was “cautious enough” to “have a lot of confidence in what the prime minister says,” especially since we still have many months left before the presidential election campaign begins. So “there is still a lot of change.”
In Poland, direct presidential elections are held in two rounds every five years. The current head of state, Andrzej Duda, may not run for re-election more than once, because according to the Polish Constitution, the incumbent president can only be re-elected once.
None of the parties in Poland has named their presidential candidate yet.
(MTI)
