Polish police have detained a man accused of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Tusk said on Sunday.
Tusk announced the detention on X and thanked police, The Guardian reported. “The man threatening an attack has been detained,” he said, adding that police had taken “swift and decisive action”.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński also confirmed the arrest, according to The Guardian.
According to the BBC, the alleged plan came to light through a warning email, and a security spokesman said there was a strong likelihood that the threats could actually be carried out.
The suspect has not been named. He has been accused but not convicted.
We are treating this matter as deadly serious.
Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the special services coordinator
Two Ministers Named as Possible Targets
Kosiniak-Kamysz is also deputy prime minister. Before the arrest was announced, the interior ministry had said that he and Tusk may have been targeted, The Guardian reported.
The interior ministry had reported that police received “credible information” about possible attacks on Tusk and Kosiniak-Kamysz, in the BBC’s words.
Police, the State Protection Service (SOP) and the internal security agency met on Sunday, according to The Guardian. Jacek Dobrzyński spoke to journalists after that meeting.
“We are treating this matter as deadly serious,” he said.
“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, according to The Guardian.
Dobrzyński, spokesman for the special services coordinator, told local media that the suspect was arrested in Lower Silesia and is a Polish national, the BBC reported.
“In this case we are talking about a strong likelihood that these threats could actually be carried out,” he said, according to the BBC.
How the Alleged Plan Came to Light
According to the BBC, the plan came to light when the State Protection Service forwarded an email about the potential attack to police. Interior ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka gave that account. The SOP is responsible for ministers’ security, the BBC reported.
On X, Gałecka said the ministry had 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”, The Guardian reported.
Poland on Alert
Poland, a Nato and EU member, has been on high alert after a series of stabbings in the last week, The Guardian reported.
The detention followed a week of violence in Polish schools. Three violent attacks at schools left one woman dead and others hurt, the BBC reported.
Police then searched schools. They arrested 117 people for weapons possession or threats, according to the BBC.
On Thursday Tusk denounced a “cult of violence”, The Guardian reported.
At a crisis meeting with security services, he spoke about what may lie behind the school attacks. “These are very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity,” he said, according to the BBC.
Tusk has been prime minister since 2023, the BBC reported. It is his second time in the job: he previously led the government from 2007 to 2014. Between his two terms as prime minister he was president of the European Council, from 2014 to 2019.
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Sources: The Guardian, “Donald Tusk says man accused of plotting to kill him detained”, 11 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/11/poland-possible-plot-attack-prime-minister-donald-tusk); BBC News, “Poland detains man suspected of planning assassination of PM Donald Tusk”, 11 October 2026 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6n9rvynl5p5o); BBC News, “Poland stabbings driven by online glorification of violence, Tusk says”, 11 October 2026 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckp8gyd65z2go)
Photo: Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, CC BY 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons.
Donald Tusk speaks to the media after a cabinet meeting in Warsaw in May 2024.
