Eurotopics.net

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has seized on a protest by the right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, who burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, as an opportunity to once again withhold his country's support for Sweden's membership in Nato. Ankara cancelled the visit of the Swedish defence minister planned for next week. The implications of the incident should not be overrated, commentators argue.

In a televised debate, the Czech presidential candidate Andrej Babiš answered 'no, certainly not' to the question of whether he would send Czech troops in the event of an attack on Poland, Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia, in the framework of collective defence as laid out in Article 5 of the Nato treaty. The remark has triggered a storm of criticism in his home country and abroad. Commentators examine what this statement means in the context of the election campaign.

Germany continues to hold back on giving its consent for deliveries of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Many allies that are in favour of the deliveries had expected a decision in Ramstein last Friday. Poland is now considering acting on its own, an initiative German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said Germany would not seek to block. Europe's press assesses the situation.