Polish security services announce threat to premier, defense minister

Polish security services convened a special meeting on Sunday after receiving information about a potential attack on Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said.

The exact nature of the threat and its origin were not immediately clear.

A “report about a potential assassination attempt on Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as well as on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, was transmitted to the police via the State Protection Service (SOP),” interior spokeswoman Karolina Galecka said at a press briefing.

Earlier on Sunday, the ministry ordered authorities to take action “in connection with the information received by (the police) concerning a possible assassination attempt on the prime minister… as well as the deputy prime minister,” who is also defense minister, Galecka wrote on X.

“A meeting will be held today at 11 a.m. at the Internal Security Agency’s Counter-Terrorism Center.”

A spokesperson for the minister-coordinator of special services said he had no further comment.

Private broadcaster Radio Zet reported that police had received an email with information about the threat.

“We are treating this matter as deadly serious,” a spokesperson for the minister-coordinator of special services, Jacek Dobrzynski, told journalists afterward.

“Month by month, year by year, more and more various threats and menacing messages reach the police, SOP, and the services concerning Poland and Poles,” he said, adding “in this case we are talking about a strong likelihood that these threats could actually be carried out.”

While violent crime is relatively rare in Poland, the country is deeply polarized politically and has faced security threats due to its proximity to the war in Ukraine.

In August, police detained a 23-year-old man accused of calling for the assassination of senior Polish politicians.

In 2024, Tusk said he had received threats after an assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

In September this year, Tusk warned about likely intensified hybrid attacks by Russia on NATO’s eastern flank. He said Russia was planning strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, among them Poland, with the goal of weakening Western support for Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion. Moscow has denied any such plans.

Sunday’s announcement came as authorities in Poland have been on high alert following a wave of violence in schools that resulted in the death of a caretaker on Thursday.