Russian and Belarusian operatives were responsible for a cyberattack on Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s party, a senior minister has said.
The incident, reported on Wednesday, involved an alleged attempt to gain control over the computers of employees of the Civic Platform (PO) party as Poland gears up for presidential elections in May.
Technology minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the attack was planned and well-organized, warning that Russia was looking to impact the forthcoming polls.
“We have received confirmation that this was not an accidental act,” he said. “This sort of incident, this sort of attack, could happen to any political party, to any state institution.”
Adding that the state security services were treating it as an unusually serious incident, Gawkowski said that Moscow wanted to steal the election. “They won’t manage it,” he said.
Many European nations have accused Russia of interfering in the democratic process, with Moscow being blamed for meddling in the presidential elections held in Moldova and Romania last year.
The accusations led to the Romanian ballot being annulled, prompting a serious political crisis in the country.
Tusk’s PO party, under the wider banner of the Civic Coalition (KO), is the dominant force in Poland’s ruling coalition, which includes parties from the center-left and center-right of the political spectrum.
KO’s candidate for the presidency, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, has a healthy lead in the opinion polls for the first round of voting.
He will likely face historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, in a run-off. However, the far-right Konfederacja’s Sławomir Mentzen is polling strongly in third place.
The results will have a big impact on whether Tusk’s coalition can achieve its electoral promises. The current president, PiS ally Andrzej Duda, has vetoed several of the government’s initiatives since it took the reins following parliamentary elections in late 2023.
Technology minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the attack was planned and well-organized, warning that Russia was looking to impact the forthcoming polls.
“We have received confirmation that this was not an accidental act,” he said. “This sort of incident, this sort of attack, could happen to any political party, to any state institution.”
Adding that the state security services were treating it as an unusually serious incident, Gawkowski said that Moscow wanted to steal the election. “They won’t manage it,” he said.
Many European nations have accused Russia of interfering in the democratic process, with Moscow being blamed for meddling in the presidential elections held in Moldova and Romania last year.
The accusations led to the Romanian ballot being annulled, prompting a serious political crisis in the country.
Tusk’s PO party, under the wider banner of the Civic Coalition (KO), is the dominant force in Poland’s ruling coalition, which includes parties from the center-left and center-right of the political spectrum.
KO’s candidate for the presidency, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, has a healthy lead in the opinion polls for the first round of voting.
He will likely face historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, in a run-off. However, the far-right Konfederacja’s Sławomir Mentzen is polling strongly in third place.
The results will have a big impact on whether Tusk’s coalition can achieve its electoral promises. The current president, PiS ally Andrzej Duda, has vetoed several of the government’s initiatives since it took the reins following parliamentary elections in late 2023.
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