The EU political discursive battle against Poland: Disinformation and the rule of law crisis

The European Union has been affected by several crises, including a disinformation wave that fed Euroscepticism. However, the rule of law crisis in Poland could be assessed as a turning point. The purpose of this article is to explore how EU leaders and institutions manage this conflict on Twitter (X), and how the Polish public reacts to that. Based on a quantitative–qualitative content analysis applied during six months (April–October 2021), this study addresses the messages on the Polish rule of law crisis posted on the X accounts of the main European actors. With the aim of examining the response of the audiences to these tweets, the total number of replies ( n 1 = 2280) was collected. Results show the existence of a public discourse of EU leaders and institutions aimed at strengthening the authority of institutions, but with few tweets. We also find a prominence of the replies of anonymous or unidentified accounts to these posts, sharing the views of the Polish government.