“Prime Minister Draghi is right , under the leadership of President Erdogan Turkey has moved away from the rule of law, democracy and fundamental freedoms in the last decade”. Thus the president of the EPP group Manfred Weber in a statement sent to the Italian media. Turkey “is not a free country for all its citizens – added Weber – if Europe wants to build a constructive partnership with countries like Turkey, and it is in our strategic interest to do so, we should speak clearly and honestly about the facts on the ground. “.
“Turkey is a country that has an elected parliament and an elected president, towards which we have a series of concerns and with which we cooperate in many sectors. It is a complex picture but it is not for the EU to qualify a system or one. person”. A spokesman for the EU Commission said this when answering the question whether Brussels shares the opinion of Prime Minister Mario Draghi who defined Erdogan a dictator. The concerns nurtured by the EU towards Ankara, he adds , “concern freedom of expression, fundamental rights, the situation of the judicial system” . diplomat between Italy and Turkeycomplete with the summons of the Italian ambassador. In the evening it was Prime Minister Mario Draghi who used very harsh words against the Turkish leader. “I absolutely disagree with Erdogan, I think it was not an appropriate behavior. I was very sorry for the humiliation that the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen had to suffer”, said the Prime Minister, and then added: ” With these dictators, let’s call them for what they are “, underlined Draghi,” which is needed, however, one must be frank in expressing one’s diversity of views and visions of society; and must also be ready to cooperate to ensure the interests of your country. You have to find the right balance “.
Claims that obviously sent the Turks into a rage. The Italian ambassador to Ankara, Massimo Gaiani, was summoned late in the evening to the foreign ministry in Ankara, where the head of Turkish diplomacy Cavusoglu expressed his disappointment: ” We strongly condemn the Prime Minister’s uncontrolled statements Italian named Mario Draghi over our elected president “, Cavusoglu said gruffly.
“I’m about to hear Draghi and we will agree on all the initiatives”, said Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in connection from Bamako, Mali, with the program Dritto e Rovescio on Rete4, at the request to comment on the diplomatic confrontation. “Even before the protocol it is a minimum of gallantry”, replied Di Maio to the observation that President Erdogan had not been “kind” to leave the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen without a chair.
In the morning, after the barrage of accusations, Turkey had come out into the open and had sent back to the sender the criticisms of Erdogan’s ‘protocol machismo’, which in the eyes of Europe would have been pleased to leave von der Leyen on the sidelines, reserving to Charles Michel the armchair next to him. “Unfair accusations. Protocol was respected during the meeting”. The staff of Turkey and the EU “met before the visit and their requests were met”, was the version of the foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
But the rebound of responsibility continues. The ceremonial staff, Brussels insisted, was denied a final inspection. As if that were not enough, it emerged today that another sensational accident was risked at the official lunch of the visit: the table was set for 5 people on each side, with two armchairs of honor in front, one for Michel and the other for Erdogan, while a smaller chair had been reserved for Von der Leyen, to Michel’s right. A rudeness avoided only in extremis. Two diplomatic advisers accompanied Michel to the table, while von der Leyen was left alone. A mess here too buffered at the last, adding a chair for a member of her staff.
And even the institutional photo initially excluded the president of the Commission, recalled at the end, according to an internal document of the Council, at the “suggestion” of Michel. “In this situation, we would have expected the two guests to have agreed with each other”, Turkish government sources told ANSA, leaking the image of EU leaders jostling to appear at the center of the scene.
But the justification for Michel’s formally superior rank does not satisfy. In terms of protocol, the spokesman for the EU executive, Eric Mamer, stressed, the “presidents of the Commission and of the European Council are treated in the same way”. In any case, the symbolic weight of the gender question remains. In the conversation with Erdogan, underlined Brussels, von der Leyen spoke of the Istanbul Convention against gender violence, “and the rights of women”.
However, the reconstructions make Michel’s position more and more uncomfortable, who also returned to “deplore” what happened, speaking of a “disastrous image”. Hour after hour, the front is growing, calling for his resignation.
