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Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi has called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "dictator".
On Thursday, Draghi sharply criticized the way in which EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was dealt with during her visit to Ankara.
"I was very saddened by the humiliation the Commission President had to suffer because of these - let's call her by name - dictators," said the Italian Prime Minister at a press conference in Rome.
But the EU must work with heads of state like Erdogan.
The “SofaGate” affair has been causing a stir for days.
The incident sparked massive criticism and allegations of misogyny against the Turkish government.
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A video showed how the head of the Commission initially stopped at the start of the meeting with Erdogan in the Presidential Office in Ankara on Tuesday and reacted with an "Um" when Erdogan and EU Council President Charles Michel sat down on two armchairs standing next to each other.
Von der Leyen then had to take a seat on a sofa at a considerable distance.
Both sides blamed each other for the scandal.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said on Thursday that the seating arrangement had been set “in accordance with the EU proposal”.
He described the criticism of Turkey as "unfair".
Conservatives and Social Democrats, the largest groups in the European Parliament, demanded clarification about the incident and called for a plenary session with von der Leyen and Michel.