There are the protocols and liturgies of power, there are the permanent indignations, that wokeness that torments us every moment, questioning our every conviction. Then there is Ursula von der Leyen sitting on a sofa, almost out of frame, as she goes on an official visit to her father-master of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Next to the Turkish president, under the flag of the European Union, there is a chair: it is the place reserved for Charles Michel, President of the European Council.
You have seen the scene. The two European leaders arrive in the meeting room and von der Leyen, when she realizes that the chairs are two and not three, says: er. An ehm that summarizes everything: surprise, embarrassment, amazement, even anger, because moreover the European delegation arrived in Turkey with a hand more outstretched than ever, once again to grant what Erdogan asks. And in all of this is missing a chair?
Michel’s staff say that everything is fine, that this is the protocol and that in official visits he represents the heads of state and therefore is on a par with the Turkish head of state. But if diplomacy and international relations are something more than a protocol, it is also because every leader is the spokesperson and representative of a series of values. Even more so than when it comes to the court of a leader that those values are questioned every moment, and every day demeans the acquired rights of its citizens. It is for this reason, and not out of indignation, that it would have been very powerful for Michel and for Europe if the President of the European Council had asked for another chair for von der Leyen, or had given her his. Instead of getting lost in discussions and calculations on women’s odds and parity, for once we would have made a gesture that is normal for us, which is transgressive only seen with the eyes of someone like Erdogan: the lady sits here.