“Sofagate”: Van der Ley will not get a chair after Erdogan, EU outraged

Stand: 5:11 p.m.| Reading time: 3 minutes

D.He also held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara with EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen. MEPs in the European Parliament, unlike EU Council President Charles Michel, have been criticized for saying that van der Leyen did not sit in an armchair next to Erdogan during his trip to Turkey, but had to sit side by side on a sofa. The incident soon received the title “Sofagate” on social networks.

The EU Commission is now officially outraged. A speaker Clarified Wednesday In his view, the head of the commission should be on an equal footing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and EU Council President Charles Michel. “The president was clearly surprised,” he said. But he wanted to talk about important things.

Van der Leyen and Michael traveled to Ankara on Tuesday to explore ways to improve relations between the European Union (EU) and Turkey. In one Video spread by the European Union To see how the head of the commission initially stands in the office of the Turkish president and how Erdogan and Michael react with an “um” as they sit in two armchairs standing next to each other. Then you can see her on a sofa to the left at a considerable distance.

Irtex Garcia Perez, head of the Social Democratic Committee in the European Parliament, pointed out that Turkey had withdrawn from the Istanbul Conference on the Protection of Women. “Now they are leaving the president of the European Commission without an official visit,” he wrote on Twitter. It was “shameful”.

The new word for “um” is not “what the EU-Turkey relationship should be like,” the Green MP said. Sergei Logodinsky wrote on Twitter. Liberal Sophie Weldt said it was “not a coincidence, it was intentional”. He also asked why Michael did not oppose the treatment of his colleague Van der Lion.

Others recalled on Twitter that he was allowed to sit at eye level during meetings with former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Erdogan. Green Bundestag member Cem Ostemir commented: “Such signs were deliberately set up by dictatorial oppressors like Putin, #Erdogan & Co. (…) If you can deal with it, you don’t have to. After all, you don’t get respect from men like that! “

After all, the content is about women’s rights

A spokesman for Van der Leyen stressed that incidents similar to those at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on Wednesday should not be repeated. Precautions for this will now be taken.

The Commission also noted that von der Leன்n’s meeting with Erdogan on Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Conference on the Rights of Women and the Protection of Women and Children from Violence was a long and open discussion with him.