Two days before the presidential election in Poland, the ruling party is the victim of a cyberattack

By The New Obs with AFP

Published on May 16, 2025 at 4:59 p.m. , updated on May 16, 2025 at 5:04 p.m.

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Poland's National Cybersecurity Research Institute (NASK) is working to restore the affected sites and suspects Russian interference, as does Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Websites belonging to Poland's ruling centrist party were down on Friday, May 16, due to a cyberattack, two days before the first round of the presidential election, the Prime Minister's Office announced Friday. The ruling pro-European party's candidate, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, is leading opinion polls ahead of Sunday's first round of voting.

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"Since 9 a.m., a denial of service attack by saturation has been underway" targeting two websites of Donald Tusk 's Civic Platform (PO) party ," the head of the Prime Minister's office, Jan Grabiec, said on X.

"The PO's main website and another dedicated to campaign fund donations have been temporarily disabled," he added on X, without identifying the source of the cyberattack.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused "Russian hackers" of being responsible for the cyberattack on the websites of his pro-European party and assured, at midday, that the attack " continues ."

Jan Grabiec said the National Cybersecurity Research Institute (NASK) was working to get the website back online. The same institute had reported on Thursday attempts to interfere in the election campaign through messages "consistent with the Russian propaganda line." Anonymous social media campaigns in support of Rafal Trzaskowski, discrediting his two main rivals, are also being investigated by the special services. The pro-European candidate has denied any connection to these campaigns.

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