However, on Monday, the presidential spokesman Błażej Spychalski told a private radio station that Mr Duda will not join the march.

“On November 11, the President will take part in various national celebrations from early morning till late at night. At the time of the independence march, the President will be out of Warsaw”, said Mr Spychalski, justifying the decision.

“The President invited representatives of all the political groups in Poland. However, many of them organise their own marches.”

“We were convinced that politicians in Poland were capable of overcoming their preconceptions towards each other.”

The point of concern for the president was surely the presence of racist and homophobic banners and chants during previous marches.

Mr Spychalski said that the organisers of the 2018 march did not agree to guaranteeing that marchers would only wave red and white Polish flags.

In September, PM Mateusz Morawiecki said that fascist and anti-Semitic slogans needed to be eliminated from the celebrations. “A good idea is to allow only white and red flags during the March”, the PM said.

Tens of thousands of people joined a nationalist march in Warsaw, organised to coincide with Poland’s independence day celebrations in 2017.

Marchers chanted religious slogans such as “God, honour, country” and some called out racist chants including “Pure Poland, white Poland”.