After months of speculation, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has finally ruled himself out of the race to become the next president of the European Commission.
“Until 2015, I will be engaged in domestic affairs,” Tusk told the TVP public broadcaster on Monday evening when asked if he intended to run for the position that Jose Manuel Barroso will be vacating in the autumn of 2014 after two terms in office at the head of the commission.
“My decision is final,” the prime minister said.
“Until the time when voters take another decision on who is to rule in Poland, I will be engaged exclusively in domestic affairs,” he said, adding that he had “discussed the issue with President Bronislaw Komorowski as to what is best for the country”.
The next general election in Poland is scheduled for the autumn of 2015.
In September last year, the German Der Spiegel magazine wrote that Chancellor Merkel favoured putting forward Poland's head of government as the centre-right's candidate for European Commission president.
Merkel's Christian Democrats and Tusk's Civic Platform are both members of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament and the largest voting bloc in the chamber.
Joseph Daul, chairman of the EPP in the European Parliament said recently that Tusk would be a good EC president, although he also mentioned France’s current EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, Michel Barnier, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Luxembourg's EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding as possible centre-right candidates.
According to Obiectiv.info, one of the reasons for Romania prime minister Victor Ponta's visit to Warsaw last week was to discuss Tusk running for the position at the head of the EC.
But Donald Tusk, who has led the Civic Platform/PSL coalition since 2007, said Monday night that, “I made this decision now as you cannot the domestic audience guessing.”
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