In his "international outlook", Thursday on Europe 1, the editorialist Vincent Hervouët returns to the "Sofagate", or the particularly sexist and shocking scene experienced by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Turkey.

He accuses the President of the European Council Charles Michel of having committed a serious political mistake by accepting the staging of Turkish President Erdogan.

EDITORIAL

The video, which went viral, was dubbed "Sofagate", or "Sofa affair".

We see the leaders of the European executive, the President of the Council Charles Michel and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, received by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But there is only one chair for two, and the way the scene unfolds says a lot about the political balances involved, according to the international editorialist of Europe 1 Vincent Hervouët. 

>> Find the international editorial every morning at 7.17am on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

Video enchants Erdogan electorate

"We see Charles Michel rushing into the armchair, wallowing in it, then glancing at Ursula von der Leyen, who remains planted standing. The two men are seated. She could protest, but probably the decor Overwhelms her. This palace of a thousand rooms, the cameras rolling .... So she says 'hum', and that's it. She sits on the couch, next to it. It may be four meters wide, it's a folding seat.The other two presidents don't ask him to go get a coffee, but it's just like.

This scene is not an accident.

She was premeditated.

Protocol is used to stage respect, or even contempt.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows very well that there are two heads in the European executive and that there must be two chairs.

He put the woman back in his place according to him, aside and a little below.

The video enchants Islamists and nationalists: its electorate.

A political fault committed by a pignouf

As for the other man in the room, Charles Michel, who knows him?

He is Belgian, politician, Freemason.

He's a daddy's boy: president of the reform party, like his father, but younger, Minister of State, like his father and even Prime Minister!

The father ended up as European Commissioner, the son, President of the European Council.

Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron sponsored him: he is the hidden child of the Franco-German couple.

Yes, but here it is, a President of the European Council serves as master of ceremonies.

And with the pandemic, that's a fictitious job.

And since the ambitious is bored, he hates Ursula von der Layen and wants at all costs to supplant her.

This is why he let himself be trapped by taking the chair instead of demanding another.

It is not a lack of education, but a political mistake that this pignouf commits.

Ursula von der Leyen lost the musical chairs part, but it was Charles Michel who lost all honor in helping Erdogan to humiliate a woman.

A snub for the European Union and its institutions

What about Europe in all of this?

The Russians have just ridiculed the High Commissioner who was lecturing them.

The British refuse to consider the European Union offices in London as an embassy.

And with Erdogan's trap, this is the third time that the surrounding world has shown the lack of respect it has for European institutions.

And when we watch the video, we tell ourselves that the world is not entirely wrong.