Thousands of people have called for European Council President Charles Michel to resign after leaving the European Commission President without a seat at talks in Türkiye.
The Millenia Foundation, a women’s rights organization, has launched an online petition calling for the resignation of European Council President Charles Michel. As of April 13, the petition had attracted more than 12,000 signatures.
After the signature collection period ends, the petition will be sent to European Council President Charles Michel and a copy will also be sent to European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.
The petition points out “serious errors that require an apology” made by European leaders during talks in Türkiye earlier this month. They say the errors were “disrespectful to all women.”
The resignation call comes amid a row over the lack of seats at a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, European Council President Michel and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on April 6. At the time, there were only two chairs in the center of the meeting room, which Michel and Erdogan sat in. Meanwhile, Ms. von der Leyen, who has the same status as Michel, looked confused and seemingly upset at the lack of a chair. She was eventually invited to sit on a sofa in the room, opposite Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The incident has sparked a diplomatic row between Turkey and the European Union (EU). Some EU officials have criticized Ankara for a lack of diplomatic protocol and said it was disrespectful to women. However, Ankara denied the accusations and insisted that the seating arrangements were made at the request of the EU.
For his part, Mr. Michel said he had many sleepless nights after the haunting incident. “I honestly cannot sleep at night because that scene keeps replaying in my mind,” European Council President Charles Michel told the media on April 10. He said that if he could turn back time, he would not let that embarrassing incident happen. He also pledged to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Yesterday, both Mr. Michel and Ms. Leyen attended a meeting with political leaders at the European Parliament to discuss the seating incident. MEPs said that Mr. Michel had apologized several times but Ms. Leyen still seemed uncomfortable. Speaking at the meeting, Ms. Leyen said that this was the “most bizarre and regrettable” incident she had ever witnessed. “You can imagine how I felt when I saw there were no seats.”
Minh Phuong
According to Politico
