Man arrested after 'serious' threat to Tusk and minister

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has said a man accused of threatening an assassination attack against him and his defence minister has been arrested, following an earlier announcement of suspected threats from the interior ministry.

"The man threatening an attack has been detained," Mr Tusk wrote on X, praising the police for their "swift and decisive action".

Polish security services had earlier convened a special meeting after receiving information about a potential attack on ⁠Prime Minister Tusk and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz.

Special services spokesperson Jacek Dobrzynski said he could not go into details but authorities were treating the threat as "deadly serious".

"We are talking about a high probability of these threats being carried out," he told reporters.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Karolina Galecka said an email with information about the potential attack had been forwarded to police by the State Protection Service, which is responsible for ministers' security.

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

While violent crime is relatively rare ‌in Poland, the country is deeply polarised 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, Mr Tusk said he received threats ⁠after an assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

The 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.

Mr Tusk has said the attacks in schools were "spontaneous acts" driven by the online "glorification of violence".

Three attacks at schools in Mazovian province in central Poland took place within four days, leaving one dead and many injured, including children.

By this morning, police had detained 117 people across Poland for carrying knives or other dangerous weapons, or for threatening to attack schools or fellow students. Some 64,000 schools were checked.

"We are not dealing with any group organised on a big scale," Mr Tusk said, during a crisis meeting with government and security services.

"These are very often spontaneous actions inspired by online activity.

"In the past years and months, we have noted - globally and in Poland - a rise in the fascination with violence."

Mr Tusk said the acts could be associated with "nihilistic violence", a term used by authorities to describe acts of violence driven by a nihilistic worldview and misanthropy rather than specific political goals.

In the case of Poland, he said "some of the people detained are active in the ultra-right environment".

He said authorities have observed intensified online searches of Nazi content as well as of "mass killers who have become idols online".

Mr Tusk said Poland is facing a "civilisational phenomenon" where children are playing video games, even banal ones, or becoming interested in crime stories and are then getting exposed to more and more violence.