BERLIN (Reuters) – Charles Michel, president of the European Council, is suffering from bad nights as a result of his embarrassment over a seat incident during a meeting in Ankara this week, he told the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
Ursula Von der Leyen, the first female president of the European Commission, expressed surprise and raised a hand in disbelief when she found that Michel had taken the only chair available next to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the talks.
In the episode, captured on camera, she is eventually moved further away to a bank.
“I make no secret of the fact that I have not slept well since, because the scenes continue to play in my head,” Michel told Handelsblatt, saying if it were possible, he would go back and fix it.
Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Edited by Frances Kerry