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EU Council President Charles Michel: "I make no secret of the fact that I haven't slept well at night since then"
Photo: Dario Pignatelli / picture alliance / dpa
After the "sofa affair" when EU leaders visited Ankara, EU Council President Charles Michel apparently has a guilty conscience.
"I make no secret of the fact that I haven't slept well at night since then because the scenes keep playing back in my head," Michel told the Handelsblatt and other European business media.
"If I could, I'd go back and fix it."
When Michel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a diplomatic scandal broke out: “In a video of the visit you can see how the head of the Commission initially stands still and at the beginning of the meeting in the Presidential Office Reacted with an "Um" when Erdogan and Michel sat down in two armchairs standing next to each other - a third armchair was not ready.
Von der Leyen had to take a seat on a sofa at a considerable distance.
The snub from the Leyens in front of the cameras had led to massive outrage in Brussels.
The Turkish government faces charges of misogyny.
But there was also criticism of Michel because he had not immediately protested against von der Leyen's treatment.
Conservatives and Social Democrats, the largest groups in the European Parliament, asked for a plenary session on the incident.
Michel justified himself again in the »Handelsblatt«.
"My fear was that if I had acted in any way, it would have caused a much more serious incident," he said.
As early as Wednesday, Michel had attested that the Leyens' “degraded treatment” in Ankara was “unfortunate in character”.
The Turkish government rejected the criticism as "unfair" and, for its part, blamed the EU for the incident.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said the seating arrangement was "in accordance with the EU proposal".
wit / AFP
