Michal Oksinski, the perpetrator of Saturday's terrorist attack in Krakow (Poland), in which he killed six people (in addition to, previously, three of his relatives) and injured 15, had searched for information on the Internet about Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the Utoya massacre. That massacre that occurred in Norway in 2011, in which 77 people died at the hands of Breivik—including dozens of teenagers at a summer camp organized by the Labor Youth—has become one of the great symbols of the danger of violence linked to right-wing extremism.
The Attorney General of the State of Poland and also Minister of Justice, Waldemar Zurek, reported this Tuesday the discovery in the search history of the computer of Oksinski, the 24-year-old man who killed his parents and sister on Saturday and then drove to Krakow and shot down pedestrians, leaving six others dead.
According to the findings of the police and intelligence services, the attacker had been searching for information about mass murders of radicalized figures for weeks. In addition to Breivik, he consulted pages with details about Charles Manson, who even tattooed a Nazi swastika on his forehead and mixed apocalyptic sectarianism with racism and white supremacy. He also sought information, according to national media that cites police and intelligence sources, about Ted Kaczynski, known as Unabomber, who defended a radical anti-technology ideology that was very critical of leftism.
Zurek has also pointed to the symbology discovered in Oksinski's workplace. In the box office of the factory where he worked as a turner, they discovered the inscription “GGER”, which means “Good Game Elliot Rodger”. Rodger, an exponent of violent misogyny, killed six people in 2014 in Isla Vista (California), before committing suicide.
Determining the ideology of the young Pole has become a new political battle in the country, where the ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and the far right aspire to win the autumn 2025 legislative elections.
A few hours after the attack, the Minister of the Interior, Marcin Kierwinski, pointed out the possibility that the perpetrator was of ultra ideology. The hypothesis was deflated when it was learned that he had also killed his family, and there began to be more talk of a person with a mental health crisis and a fascination with weapons and shootings. On Sunday, Kierwinski was unable to support his claim with evidence and downgraded it. PiS and the rest of the ultra sector accused the Government of having lied.
On social networks, where the authorities have observed a large disinformation campaign with a Russian accent, photos and subsequent analyzes have circulated about the meaning of patches on the military uniform worn by Oksinski, flags in social media posts or an emblem found in his room. According to these findings, some link him to the extreme right, others to libertarian positions and another to the left.
The prosecutor responsible for the case in Krakow, Eryk Stasielak, in charge of the investigation, has asked for calm before drawing conclusions about whether he was left-wing or right-wing. "There are indications that the author was fascinated by extreme ideologies, but we need more time to draw conclusions. Evidence is still being collected," he stressed.
Authorities are trying to determine not only his beliefs, but whether he acted motivated by someone. "The author has died and, under normal circumstances, the proceedings against him should be closed. However, we continue to investigate the case from a broader perspective: what contacts he had, whether he acted alone and to what extent he was inspired or influenced by someone or something. We need to understand all this in depth," Minister Zurek said in an interview on radio Krákow. On Monday, in his capacity as attorney general, he did not rule out that someone or something that could have influenced the young man could be related to Russia.
Experts such as the former head of the Polish intelligence agency, Colonel Grzegorz Malecki, in Rzeczpospolita, point to “nihilism” to understand the radicalization of young people on the internet who are not necessarily ideologized, but who rebel against their environment and act alone, as Oksinski did on Saturday. The phenomenon is complex and different elements overlap, such as the psychological conditions of the subject, as well as the family and social environment in which this radicalization process develops. In it, there may be external influences, such as those sought by the Polish Prosecutor's Office.
The testimonies of former colleagues and the evidence of the case point to a profile fascinated with weapons and shootings. Oksinski had a license for two guns, and his father had a license for nine, and both were members of a shooting club. To obtain a weapons permit in Poland, you must pass psychological and psychiatric tests.
