Polish prime minister says his party was targeted in cyberattack ahead of election

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday that his centrist political party was the target of a cyberattack, and suggested that it could have been interference from the east — meaning Russia or Belarus — ahead of Poland's presidential election next month.

Tusk announced on the X platform that his Civic Platform party's computer system was targeted.

“Foreign interference in elections begins. Services point to eastern trace,” Tusk said.

Jan Grabiec, the head of Tusk's office, told the Polish state news agency PAP that the cyberattack consisted of an attempt to take control of computers of employees of the Civic Platform office and the election staff over about a dozen hours on Wednesday.

Asked if Tusk was pointing the finger at Russia or Belarus, Grabiec said that would be for Poland's secret services to comment on, but that in past cases Belarusians have infiltrated Poland's systems on behalf of Russian intelligence services.

Poland is weeks away from the first round of a presidential election, scheduled for May 18.

The frontrunner is the Civic Platform candidate, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who like Tusk is a pro-European Union centrist. He has been polling around 35%.

His main contenders include a conservative backed by the Law and Justice party, Karol Nawrocki, who is second in most polls at a bit over 20%, and a co-leader of the far-right Confederation party, Sławomir Mentzen, who has been polling around 20%.

If no candidate wins outright with at least 50% of the vote on May 18, a runoff will be held June 1.