Last month, we documented the burgeoning spat between Brussels and Poland over the latter’s move to approve new laws that allow the conservative (and eurosceptic) Law and Justice (PiS) government to name the chiefs of public TV and radio, and select judges for Poland’s constitutional court.

In response to a bloc-wide backlash, Polish minister Zbigniew Ziobro sent a letter to EU commissioner Gunther Oettinger in which Ziobro dismissed criticism of the new laws as “silly.”

Oettinger earlier suggested that Poland be put under supervision for possible violations of democratic principles and after the Polish Wprost weekly ran a cover depicting Angela Merkel, Jean Claude-Juncker, and other eurocrats as Nazis who “want to supervise Poland again,” Brussels hit back by launching a review of the country’s new media laws. Under the “rule of law” mechanism, the EU Commission can compel member states to change measures that pose “a systematic threat” to democracy. MORE