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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Andrzej Duda has announced his first professional move since leaving office last month after serving for ten years as president of Poland. He will present his own programme on Kanał Zero, a prominent Polish YouTube channel.
The news was first revealed by the channel’s founder, Krzysztof Stanowski, who said that the former president would record 16 episodes in which he would speak with dozens of guests about his “memories” as president and would also “look at current issues”.
Duda himself then confirmed the news in a video published by Kanał Zero. He said that the as-yet-unnamed show, which premieres on 15 September, would feature him speaking about his presidency with people he had worked alongside.
The programme is also intended to promote the book, To ja (It’s me), that Duda published upon leaving office.
Traditionally, presidents in Poland have departed from frontline politics after leaving office. However, at just 53 years of age, Duda has made clear that he “is not going into retirement”.
Speculation has been rife as to what his next moves would be. Some rumours have suggested that he still has ambitions in domestic politics, perhaps to play a role in reshaping the Polish right as its leading figure, Jarosław Kaczyński, 76, moves towards retirement.
Other reports have claimed that Duda has been seeking an international position, perhaps at the United Nations or even the International Olympic Committee.
In an interview earlier this week with journalist Roman Rymanowski, Duda confirmed that he “would like to [continue] serving Poland, even if only with my experience, even if I am on the margins of the political scene, not directly [involved], but in its surroundings”.
He said that he was not interested in forming a new political party. But when asked if he would consider serving in future as prime minister if the position was proposed to him, Duda admitted that he would consider “something like that” if it was for the good of Poland.
However, the former president said that, for now, his main aim is to establish an institution that would function “like think tanks in countries with established democracies”
Andrzej Duda steps down next week after a decade as Poland's president.
Though derided by critics as Jarosław Kaczyński's "pen", he leaves office as the country's most-trusted politician.@danieltilles1 and @stanleysbill explore Duda's divisive legacy https://t.co/UEHyfSDcGm
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 31, 2025
Kanał Zero has been a huge success since being launched by Stanowski, a former sports journalist, 18 months ago. The channel, whose content focuses in particular on politics and current affairs, now has over two million subscribers on YouTube.
Stanowski himself stood in this year’s presidential election to choose a successor to Duda. However, his candidacy was a self-proclaimed stunt in which he sought to show audiences how the political process works while also poking fun at some of his rivals. He finished eighth, with 1.24% of the vote.
Adam Szynol, a professor of journalism at the University of Wrocław, told Press magazine that he believes Duda’s decision to go from the presidency to presenting a YouTube show represents “a certain devaluation of the dignity” with which former Polish heads of state have acted.
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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Kanał Zero/Facebook (screenshot)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
