The French president, Emmanuel Macron, avoided at the summit between the European Union and the African Union an insult to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, whom Ugandan Foreign Minister Jeje Odongo refused a handshake.
The embarrassing moment came on Thursday, the first day of the summit, when the Ugandan minister quickly and almost imperceptibly nodded to Von der Leyen and passed by, to shake hands with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and then with Macron.
The French president then intervened, given the lack of reaction from the president of the European Council, to resolve Michel’s palsy, pointing to Von der Leyen, with whom the head of Uganda then exchanged a few words. The Ugandan minister later posted on his Twitter account a photo of himself during the greetings with Macron and Michel, the only two people he mentioned.
“I was received by the President of the European Council and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron,” the minister said in that tweet, which was later deleted. What happened is reminiscent of the diplomatic incident that left the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the background last year during her visit to Ankara, when the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Charles Michel sat down in chairs in the center of the room, while Von der Leyen was relegated to a side sofa.
The reactions then generated by Michel’s passivity forced him to apologize solemnly afterwards before the President of the European Commission.
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
