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Poland draws EU anger with new controls on media organisations and references to Nazi Germany

Poland’s relationship with the European Union is heading to a post-Cold War low after the country’s new Justice Minister likened the German government to the Nazis and poured scorn on critics of Warsaw’s curbs on media independence.

Zbigniew Ziobro broke the unwritten taboo on Nazi references in European politics by referring to Germany’s occupation of Poland during the Second World War.

His comments came after the EU’s media commissioner, Günther Oettinger, himself a German, warned that Poland could face sanctions over a new law imposing government control over Polish public broadcasters and the state-owned news agency.