A man in his sixties is in Polish police custody, accused of planning to assassinate the country’s two most senior leaders. What follows is how the case unfolded — and why Warsaw is treating it as deadly serious.
The timeline
An email arrives. Poland’s State Protection Service — the agency that guards senior politicians — forwards an email to police containing information about a possible attack. The details suggest the potential targets are Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the deputy prime minister and defence minister. The interior ministry orders authorities to act.
The tip-off, according to TVN24. The Polish broadcaster reports that a person approached the security services about an individual who was “seeking volunteers to carry out an attack using firearms.” The informant described meeting a man named Krzysztof, with whom he discussed weapons, hatred of the government and a planned mass killing. Police treat the report as credible enough to move on.
Traced through the internet. Security services identify the suspect through what Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński calls “a thorough analysis of content posted online.” The man — a Polish citizen in his sixties — is arrested in Lower Silesia, in the country’s southwest. Police begin searching his home and examining his contacts and internet activity.
Tusk announces it. The prime minister posts on X: “The man threatening an attack has been detained,” praising the police for their “swift and decisive action.” Kosiniak-Kamysz adds his own thanks.
“Deadly serious.” Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the minister coordinating Poland’s special services, tells reporters the authorities are treating the matter as deadly serious — and that there is a “strong likelihood” the threat could actually have been carried out. Government spokesman Adam Szłapka says the latest intelligence is considerably more alarming than the threats Warsaw usually receives, and that the decision to go public was deliberate, to get ahead of speculation. Police, the SOP and the internal security agency convene a special meeting.
The backdrop
Poland is a country on edge. Last week a wave of violence in schools — including an attack that killed a caretaker — prompted police to detain ten people over what local media dubbed “Bloody Friday” threats. Tusk denounced a “cult of violence” in public life.
The alleged plot fits a darker pattern. In August, police detained a 23-year-old accused of calling for the assassination of senior Polish politicians. In 2024, Tusk said he had received threats in the wake of the assassination attempt on Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico.
That history explains the unusual candor. Threats against Polish officials have become, in Dobrzyński’s phrase, a month-by-month reality. What made this one different was the assessment that it might actually be attempted — which is why Warsaw chose to name the danger rather than absorb it quietly.
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