Poland woke up to grim news after the bloodiest attack the country has seen in decades: the man accused of unleashing a deadly shooting spree in Krakow has died.
Police said the 24-year-old Polish suspect died in hospital on Monday morning, two days after he was critically wounded during a shootout with officers.
“We inform you that the perpetrator of the tragic events died this morning in the hospital,” regional police said in a post on X, referring to the man who allegedly opened fire on Saturday in central Krakow, killing six people.
Investigators have said the suspect was “fascinated by far-right ideologies”, while Prime Minister Donald Tusk has described the rampage — the deadliest in Poland since the end of communism in 1989 — as an act of “terrorism”.
Authorities said six people were killed, including two foreigners, and around 15 others were wounded.
Police suspect the overall death toll linked to the case may be higher. After the Krakow shootings, officers found the bodies of three people — identified as the suspect’s parents and sister — at the family home roughly two hours’ drive from Krakow, bringing the suspected total to nine.
The violence has jolted a country where such attacks have been rare and where many people were unaccustomed to random, everyday violence until Saturday, when the gunman opened fire at random in Krakow’s historic market square — the central landmark of Poland’s second city.
People light candles for the victims close to the main market place in Krakow yesterday
On Sunday, prosecutors opened an investigation into an “act of terrorism”. The interior minister’s statement that the suspect was drawn to “far-right ideologies” has stirred anger among the conservative and nationalist opposition.
The shooting also lands at a fraught moment for Poland, a nation already deeply divided politically and now heading into a pivotal week.
Tomorrow, the Constitutional Tribunal is scheduled to hold a high-stakes meeting that has become a flashpoint in the struggle between Mr Tusk’s government and its opponents over judicial appointments.
The right-wing opposition says the liberal, pro-European administration is eroding the constitutional order.
The governing coalition counters that it is attempting to reverse “political” appointments to the court and unwind reforms introduced by nationalists — changes it argues are incompatible with European democratic standards.
For weeks, nationalist protesters have been camped outside the tribunal, saying they are there to “defend it”. The standoff intensified sharply late last month.
Riot police were deployed to block access, and a judge newly appointed by the parliamentary majority announced she was taking over on an interim basis — a move that effectively suspended the incumbent leader of the tribunal, who is seen as close to the right and to nationalist head of state Karol Nawrocki.
In the wake of the Krakow attack, the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) — which governed from 2015 to 2023 — cancelled protests planned for today and tomorrow, though organisers have not ruled out resuming later in the week.
Concern over Independence March on Wednesday
Even so, the biggest worry now centres on Wednesday’s Independence March.
The annual demonstration can draw up to hundreds of thousands of right-wing supporters, spanning Catholic conservatives and white-supremacist fringe groups as well as antisemitic, pro-Russian far-right elements.
Mr Nawrocki has said he will attend.
Some observers have labelled the march “high-risk”, concerned that participants could stray from the agreed route and head toward the Constitutional Tribunal.
On Sunday, Mr Tusk rejected speculation that authorities might seek to stop the event.
“No one intends to ban the Independence March,” he wrote on X. “Speculation on this matter is nothing but disinformation.”
Still, he urged those taking part to “refrain from aggression” and cautioned against joining counter-demonstrations.
In a political climate marked by hardening divisions and the rise of far-right currents, there is little certainty such appeals will be followed.
“An extremely destructive polarisation which does not merely dismantle the state in an institutional sense but also divides society even more deeply on an emotional level,” leading writer Boguslaw Chrabota wrote in the weekly Rzeczpospolita yesterday.
He warned that radicalisation in political discourse “gives rise to Polish Breiviks”, linking the Krakow shootings to Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.
Political scientist Ewa Marciniak of Warsaw University said the Krakow tragedy could quickly become a political weapon.
“Tragedies like the one in Krakow only serve to sharpen political divisions,” she said.
“After a period of shared mourning comes the search for those responsible, all taking place in a political climate defined by deep-seated, mutual hostility among political leaders.”
With parliamentary elections set for autumn 2027, she added, episodes such as the Krakow killings and the ongoing dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal are likely to be used “to deepen conflicts” and “draw the public into them”.
