European Council President under fire over #sofagate

Their joint trip to Turkey was meant to increase pressure on the country’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to return to fully supporting human rights, migration and hammer home the need for women’s rights after Turkey left the Istanbul convention just days earlier. Instead, three Presidents for two chairs and an awkward German “ähm” left European Council President Charles Michel universally criticised at home. 

In front of rolling cameras, walking into the large meeting room in Ankara’s Presidential palace on Tuesday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was left standing, arms spread in surprise, as the two men sat themselves on the only two chairs placed in the centre of the sprawling room. 

Meanwhile, von der Leyen, the only woman in the room, a President in her own right, and as such on the same diplomatic level as her counterpart from across Brussel’s rond-point Schuman, was first left awkwardly standing, and then sitting on an adjacent sofa. 

Without delay, the incident quickly dubbed #sofagate, prompted accusation of sexism against the two Presidents and overshadowed one of the key points for the EU leadership’s travel to Ankara. Only last month, on 20 March, Turkey announced by Presidential Degree that it would withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention. The Convention, which Turkey signed and ratified in 2012, is a “unique legal instrument to tackle violence against women as it covers not only domestic violence, but other forms of violence against women, including psychological and physical abuse, sexual harassment, rape, crimes committed in the name of so-called “honour”, stalking, and forced marriage,” according to the Council of Europe. 

In fact, many in the EU’s thought bubble, immediately identified President Erdogan’s “refusal” to offer a chair to the only women in the room as the prime example for the “sexist” polices introduced under his rule and why the European Union needs to exert pressure to force an immediate policy reversal. 

European Council President Michel found himself in the crosshairs for his apparent refusal to either insist on an additional chair being brought in, or alternatively offer his own chair to President von der Leyen to make a statement for women’s equality. As, according to the Commission, it also was the Council’s internal services which coordinated the visit, and as such would have had to sign off on the two-chair seating arrangement, the Council is also under fire for damaging the reputation and respect of the EU’s institutions abroad. 

This week’s clear showing of “disrespect” by President Erdogan towards the EU’s joint leadership is only the latest in a long line of actions by the Turkish President to divide and undermine the EU on critical issues related to women’s rights, migration, economic ties, as well as its provocative and illegal drilling for gas in Greek and Cypriot waters. According to German Green MEP, Sergey Lagodinsky, “sofagate” “symbolises the underlying problems” in the EU-Turkey bilateral relationship since the country has given up its commitment towards a place in Europe. 

Both EU Presidents are now called on to provide answers on what happened and what was discussed in the meeting to Members of the European Parliament at their next plenary session on 26-29 April.