Poland’s ruling party has claimed it was hit by a cyberattack just days before the country’s presidential election.
“Since 9 a.m. there has been an ongoing DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack against the Civic Platform (PO) site,” said Jan Grabiec, chief of staff to Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“PO’s main page and an additional one devoted to campaign donations have been temporarily disabled,” he added on X, without identifying the source of the cyberattack.
The cyberattack claim comes after revelations of a covert smear campaign run by a foreign-funded group tied to Prime Minister Tusk’s own Civic Coalition. While officials rushed to blame external enemies, new evidence suggests that the real interference came from within the ruling camp—and was coordinated with state-linked institutions.
Investigators traced over 420,000 PLN (€100,000) in anonymous online ads to Akcja Demokracja, a Soros-funded NGO with close ties to Civic Coalition figures, including activist Jakub Kocjan. Kocjan, who helped manage the campaign, was simultaneously working with government agency NASK on so-called “election protection.”
Critics may see the DDoS attack narrative as a distraction. Despite the mounting evidence of domestic interference, no consequences have yet followed for the liberal campaign—raising fears that the election has already been tainted.
