The scene, filmed on the occasion of the visit to Ankara on Tuesday, April 6, of Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission, and Charles Michel, her counterpart at the European Council, widely disseminated on social networks, leaves pensive. We see the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the former Belgian Prime Minister sitting down, all smiles, on two armchairs prepared for the meeting, flanked by the European and Turkish flags. At the same time, the former German defense minister is still standing, obviously taken aback, when he discovers that the two men have not planned for her to join their circle.
We hear him say “Hum”, without this eliciting the slightest reaction from his male interlocutors. Finally, Ursula von der Leyen sat down on a beige sofa, back from the two men and opposite the Turkish Foreign Minister. “President von der Leyen was surprised. She decided to go ahead and prioritize the substance over the protocol. But that does not imply that she does not attach importance to the incident ”, commented, Wednesday, his spokesperson Eric Mamer.
The Turkish president has never distinguished himself by his feminism
Whatever their genre, “The Presidents of the Commission and of the Council have the same protocol rank. They should have been seated in the same place ”, continues Eric Mamer. False retorts in the entourage of Charles Michel: “The Lisbon Treaty provides that internationally, the President of the Council has precedence over the President of the Commission. “ Certainly, but the Turkish president, who has never distinguished himself by his feminism – to the point of decreeing, on March 20, the exit of Turkey from the Istanbul Convention against violence against women – he would have made undergo the same treatment at Ursula von der Leyen if she had been a man?
No one, of course, can answer this question. But Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld was quick to post on Twitter photos taken in November 2015, on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Antalya, on which we see the same Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sitting alongside Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, respectively Presidents of the Commission and of the Council. With this comment: “Why has the President of the Council remained silent? “
And no, it wasn’t a coincidence it was deliberate.? Why was @eucopresident silent? https://t.co/LvObcyGpmL https://t.co/dLUxuUr5B9
No doubt because Charles Michel, who has very difficult relations with Ursula von der Leyen when it comes to foreign policy, did not see where the problem was. Its services had indeed sent someone to Ankara, to analyze the choices of the Turkish protocol for the meeting which was announced, and had therefore found nothing to say to what was preparing. “Ankara has done everything best. Erdogan had come to the steps to wait for Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel. There was a guard of honor for their arrival ”, comments a close to the Council. The Commission, for its part, had not sent anyone to Turkey before the meeting, “Taking into account the pandemic”, explained Eric Mamer.