Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a “dictator” and criticized him for relegating European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to a sofa during an official visit on Tuesday.
“I felt very sorry for the humiliation that European Commission President von der Leyen had to undergo,” Draghi said during a press conference Thursday evening.
During the official visit in Ankara, Erdoğan offered European Council President Charles Michel a chair next to him, leaving a visibly furious von der Leyen to sit on a nearby couch — an incident that has since gone viral online and been dubbed Sofagate.
Turkey has in turn summons Italy's ambassador over the incident