Polish government uses Babiš NATO statement to criticise Czech EU commissioner

Polish politicians from the ruling Law and Justice party have used the backlash faced by presidential candidate Andrej Babiš over statements he made regarding Czechia's committment to NATO to levy criticisms aimed at Věra Jourová, the Czech vice-president of the European Commission, who has repeatedly reproached the Polish cabinet over breaching the rule of law.

In a televised election debate on Sunday, Mr Babiš stated that he would not send Czech soldiers to help Poland or the Baltic states in the event of a military attack, causing an international and domestic uproar.

Beata Mazurek, a Polish MEP from the ruling Law and Justice party, drew attention to Mr Babiš's past as a communist secret police agent and said that the comments made by Babiš in Sunday's debate were made by the same person who proposed Věra Jourová as commissioner and who caused problems for Poland over its Turow mine.

Another Law and Justice MP, Bartosz Kownacki, linked Mr Babiš and Ms Jourová, both ANO party members, to the Kremlin, saying in a post on Twitter that Ms Jourová had been lashing out at Poland over its judicial reform for years and suggesting that both Mr Babiš and Ms Jourová were receiving payment from Moscow.