A diplomatic spat has erupted between Turkey and Italy, after prime minister Mario Draghi accused president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of humiliating European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and described him as a “dictator”, writes The Guardian.

Von der Leyen – the commission’s first female president – was left without a chair during a meeting on Tuesday with Erdoğan and the European council president Charles Michel met Erdoğan. The commission chief was clearly taken aback when the two men sat on the only two chairs prepared, relegating her to an adjacent sofa.

Draghi told reporters: “I absolutely do not agree with Erdoğan’s behavior towards president Von der Leyen … I think it was not appropriate behavior and I was very sorry for the humiliation Von der Leyen had to suffer. With these, let’s call them what they are – dictators - with whom one nonetheless has to coordinate, one has to be frank when expressing different visions and opinions”.

Soon after, the Italian ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the foreign ministry, Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported, and foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu slammed the remarks.