It was a Luis Rubiales moment in Berlin: While the head of the Spanish football association was banned for three years this week for his kiss attack on Jenni Hermoso, there was another attack with a prominent victim on Thursday. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was greeted by her Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlic-Radman in a way that visibly made her uncomfortable.
Baerbock reflexively turns her head to the left.
(Photo: John McDougall/AFP)
The scene takes place in a split second. Videos of the photo shoot at the meeting of several European ministers in Berlin can be seen. Grlic-Radman appears to be slightly late. He stands in the front row next to the German Foreign Minister, squeezes her hand, looks at her. Then his mouth comes very close to her mouth.
Because Baerbock reacts with presence of mind and turns his head away, he gets a smack on the cheek. It can be seen from the pictures that Baerbock is uncomfortable with the situation. So the damage is done.
The topic of the summit was actually planned EU expansions. The video of the dubious greeting quickly spread across social networks.
The women’s rights activist Rada Boric spoke of a “completely inappropriate gesture”; Another activist accused the minister of a lack of decency and respect. According to MP Ivana Kekin, Grlic-Radman has shamed not only himself but all Croats. Croatia’s former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor writes on Platform X: “Forced kissing of women is also called violence, right?”
Croatian and Bosnian media commented on the incident with words such as “unpleasant to watch”, “a fiasco” or “unpleasant”.
Grlic-Radman himself no longer understands the world. He wanted to greet a colleague in a “humane” way: “Ministers always greet each other warmly.” However, if anyone takes offense at his gesture, he apologizes, said Grlic-Radman. How Mirror online Reportedly, he also told reporters that he “didn’t know what the problem was.”
Annalena Baerbock has not yet commented. In the case of the Spanish football official Rubiales, the Green politician spoke out clearly: “You just have to imagine if Angela Merkel had kissed Philipp Lahm like that in 2014. All hell would have broken out or that is simply unimaginable and says “That’s it,” she explained at the end of August.