BRUSSELS – I will “never again” allow such an incident to happen again. At the first contact after the Ankara “sofagate”, Ursula von der Leyen is direct with Charles Michel. After having denied calls from the President of the European Council for six days, the number one of the EU Commission agrees to attend what her institution, keeping intact the curtain of ice with her colleague, defines “the normal weekly meeting between the two” . So far from being a clarification or, even more so, a forgiveness. So much so that in Brussels they talk about a “sober and objective” meeting. How to say, cold.
Since last Tuesday, when Michel sat in the armchair next to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaving von der Leyen standing and pushing her to sit on a sofa at a safe distance from the two men, the German refused to make phone calls from the former Belgian prime minister. “I no longer sleep at night”, Michel justified himself while from the European Commission headquarters they did not fail to let it be known that the president let the phone ring empty since she was, for the first time since Christmas, in Hanover with the family. In short, no reconciliation between the two opposite, between the two leaders of the EU institutions who physically find themselves opposite each other, separated only by Rue de la Loi, an avenue that has never become a furrow like today.
Sofa-gate, Michel and the jealousies for Von der Leyen: “He decided the protocol, now he has to resign”
by our correspondent Alberto d’Argenio
Von der Leyen therefore chose the path of the cold crisis: not publicly attack the colleague who presides over the heads of state and government, but not even to make people forget the “sofagate”. So today his head of cabinet wrote to the Belgian’s counterpart asking to change the protocol between the institutions to regulate the ceremonial, so that the fact of Ankara never happens again. Furthermore, Michel and von der Leyen will be heard tomorrow by the conference of the group leaders of the European Parliament which will carry out a sort of preliminary investigation on the incident that has profoundly damaged the image of the Union. Ninety-nine percent of the group leaders will choose to convene the two in the classroom at the plenary session at the end of April, where Michel will be “grilled” by MEPs from popular, socialists and greens. So much so that a large group of ladies has already asked for the resignation of the head of the European Council.Only the parliamentarians of Renew Europe, the group that refers to Emmanuel Macron, political sponsor of the Belgian liberal.
Turkey, the writer Aykol: “Von der Leyen’s lack of a chair? An artfully prepared scene. Erdogan punished those who criticized him the most”
by Marco Ansaldo
At the moment, however, it seems difficult that the “sofagate” could lead to Michel’s resignation, a step that would earthquake the institutions of Brussels, would open an institutional crisis within the Union and would give Erdogan a political victory, with the Sultan who could demonstrate that he is be able to get the President of the European Council to resign with a simple chair. Yet in Brussels there is the doubt, for many a certainty, that the former head of the Belgian government was not simply the protagonist of a gaffe for lack of reflexes, but that on the contrary he was aware of the fact that von der Leyen would have remained without a chair . So much so that last week the Turks themselves made it known, without being denied, that the request to arrange the meeting room with Erdogan in that way came precisely from Michel’s protocol. The “motive”, is the conviction that is constantly circulating in the capitals and in Brussels, would be the Belgian’s desire to demonstrate the primacy of the President of the European Council over the head of the Euro-government in foreign policy. If this reading were to find concrete confirmation, Michel’s position would become even more difficult.
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