"As a serious politician, the president does not intend to suspend his political agenda," Szrot said. "He will carry it out regardless of whether an election campaign is in progress or not."
Albert Zawada/PAP

Andrzej Duda, Poland’s president, will not cease his political plans due to the upcoming election, the head of the President’s Office said on Wednesday.

Duda announced on Tuesday that parliamentary elections would be held on October 15.

Speaking on the TOK FM radio station, Paweł Szrot said that the campaign had just started in the political and legal sense, but it had already been going on for a long time in the political sense.

Asked whether Duda, who is affiliated with the ruling Law and Justice party, would join the campaign with a political preference, Szrot replied:

“In the pre-campaign period, the president appealed for the widespread participation of citizens in the election, for a high turn-out, and will continue to do so.”

Szrot went on to say that “the president has his own political programme, with which he has gone to elections twice,” adding that “it is no secret or surprise that it is in large measure concurrent with the programme of the circle from which he originates.”

“The president does not intend to withdraw from that programme just because an election campaign is ongoing,” Szrot explained. “Quite the opposite, he will conduct his activities further.”

Szrot also said that Duda had already “cooperated with the government in pro-social activities.”

“As a serious politician, the president does not intend to suspend his political agenda,” Szrot said. “He will carry it out regardless of whether an election campaign is in progress or not.”