# GiveHerASeat trends after female EU leader not given seat during official visit

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Social media users quickly adopted a new hashtag after two European Union leaders visited Turkey and only one of them was offered a seat at a meeting.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and her colleague Charles Michel, President of the European Council, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week. In the conference room, there were two chairs between the EU and Turkish flags. Michel got one, and Erdoğan took the other, leaving von der Leyen standing.

“Uhm…” Von der Leyen muttered as she evaluated the situation and raised her hand questioningly, as shown in video clips posted on Twitter.

She ended up sitting on an adjacent sofa while photographers took pictures of the two men. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu sat on a side bench opposite her.

The New York Times noted that von der Leyen and Michel have an equal rank in the leadership of the EU, and that von der Leyen outranks the Çavuşoğlu.

After the incident hit the internet, outrage set in, with many saying it was indicative of Turkey’s view of women. Days before the meeting, Turkey left the Istanbul Convention, a treaty aimed at ending violence against women, the Times reports.

“#GiveHerASeat” started trending, initially in Europe and then elsewhere.

Eric Mamer, an EU spokesman, told the Times that von der Leyen “should have sat exactly the same way as the President of the European Council and the Turkish President.”

Mamer did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

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