Police acted on a tip-off about a possible attack on the prime minister and the defence minister, as the country remains on high alert after a week of school stabbings.
Poland has detained a man accused of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Mr Tusk said on Sunday. The arrest followed an emergency meeting of the country’s security services, convened at short notice after police received information about a possible attack. The Interior Minister also confirmed the detention. Authorities have not disclosed the suspect’s identity.
The arrest
Writing on X, Mr Tusk said: “The man threatening an attack has been detained.” He praised the police for their “swift and decisive action”.
An Interior Ministry spokesperson said on X that the security meeting had been called after officers received a tip-off about a possible assassination attempt. The latest reporting suggests the warning came by email to Poland’s State Protection Service. Officials treated it seriously enough to hold the urgent talks, which involved the security services, police and Interior Ministry representatives.
The nature of the threat was not immediately clear. Officials have not said how the alleged attack was meant to be carried out, whether a target or date had been chosen, or what evidence was found against the suspect. Mr Kosiniak-Kamysz is also a deputy prime minister.
A week of school attacks
Poland is also reeling from three knife attacks at schools in four days, which left at least one person dead and several others injured, including children.
- Wednesday 7 October: A 19-year-old student at a vocational school in the central Mazovian province, in Ostrołęka, injured nine people. He attacked fellow students and teachers with a sharp object.
- Thursday 8 October: A 15-year-old killed a school caretaker and injured two others at his former school in Leszczydół-Nowiny, in the same province. Mr Tusk said the suspect wore a helmet-mounted camera to film the attack.
- Saturday 10 October: A 21-year-old woman attacked an adult education school in Warsaw, wounding three women.
Police have detained 117 people across the country for carrying knives or other dangerous weapons, or for threatening schools or students. Officers have checked about 64,000 schools, most of them in the Mazovian province.
Police said on Friday that cybercrime investigators had found no evidence that a social media challenge was driving the violence, or that the attacks were co-ordinated.
What Tusk has said
At a government crisis meeting on Sunday morning, Mr Tusk described the attacks as “spontaneous actions” fuelled by a rising “glorification of violence” online. “We are not dealing with any group organized on a big scale,” he said.
“In the past years and months, we have noted — globally and in Poland — a rise in the fascination with violence,” he continued. He blamed “nihilistic violence” rather than a specific political ideology, but acknowledged that “some of the people detained are active in the ultraright environment”.
He attributed the attacks to the online glorification of violence and the idolisation of mass killers.
Wider security concerns
Poland borders Ukraine and has faced growing hybrid attacks from Russia in recent months, which have added to concerns about security on NATO’s eastern flank. Mr Tusk has warned that Russia could step up such attacks against countries supporting Kyiv. However, there is no public evidence linking Russia to the alleged plot against Mr Tusk and the defence minister.
