Jaroslaw Kaczynski

Citing heavy dependence, those countries in June secured an exemption from the EU's Russian oil embargo - due to kick in at the end of the year - for imports delivered by the Druzhba pipeline. The route carries around 250,000 barrels per day to the region. Slovakia imports over 95 per cent of its oil through Druzhba, and sends processed fuels on to its neighbours.

"Obviously someone might disagree with us, and have left-wing views," Kaczynski said on June 25 at one of these meetings in Wloclawek, central Poland. "They may think that each one of us can at one point say that up until now, until this moment, until this hour - it's now about 5:30 - I was a man, and from now on I am a woman."

Morawiecki retorted that he was "not surprised by the level of emotion" demonstrated by Ziobro, given that the CJEU's rejection of Poland and Hungary's legal challenge to this new conditionality mechanism concerned an area of the justice minister's competency.

Leader of the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party Jaroslaw Kaczynski attends a press conference at the Polish parliament building in Warsaw, Poland, 07 July 2021. EPA-EFE/PAWEL SUPERNAK Family ties