Polish PM Tusk says he received threats after assassination attempt on Slovakia's PM

WARSAW: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday he received threats after the assassination attempt on his Slovakian counterpart, with a media outlet reporting his security protection would be strengthened.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot five times at close range on Wednesday, spurring international condemnation and calls for a calming of political tensions.

"There was a lot of it yesterday," Tusk said in a post on the X social media platform illustrated with a screenshot of a comment, also on X, saying: "today, Slovaks gave us an example of what should be done with Donald Tusk" if he decided not to carry out investment in a big airport in central Poland.

The political atmosphere in Poland has been charged in recent years, including the murder in 2019 of a liberal mayor of Gdansk who was a critic of then ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party's anti-immigrant policies.

Polish website Wp.pl said on Thursday, citing a source at the State Protection Service, that Tusk's protection will be strengthened following the assassination attempt on Fico.

A spokesperson for the State Protection Service - the body responsible for protecting the most important people in Poland - declined to comment saying its activities were confidential.

"Of course, we analyze and draw conclusions, but we do not talk about them publicly," Polish interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak was quoted as saying by Wp.pl.