EU’s Tusk has no plans to run for presidency in native Poland

EU leader Donald Tusk has announced that he won’t run to be the president of his native Poland, saying he carries too much “baggage” from his time as Prime Minister, AP reported.

Tusk was PM in Poland from 2007 to 2014. Incumbent President Andrzej Duda, who supports the ruling Law and Justice party and has only rarely vetoed the party’s laws, faces re-election in the spring of 2020.

Tusk’s term at the helm of the European Council ends at the end of this month, which would have given him time to start campaigning.

However, Tusk, the former leader of the centrist and pro-EU party Civic Platform, told Polish TV stations on Tuesday that he “will not be a candidate in the next presidential elections.” The decision leaves opposition forces in Poland without a clear candidate to run against Duda.