The Croatian Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlic-Radma, has apologized for trying to kiss his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in a gesture that in his country has been compared to the non-consensual kiss that the former president of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales gave to soccer player Jenni Hermoso.
The incident occurred last Thursday during the family photo taken by the foreign ministers of the EU and candidate countries meeting in Berlin.
In the video, which has gone viral, you can see how the Croatian conservative minister first shakes hands with Baerbock and then tries to kiss her, while she withdraws her face with a displeased expression.
Grlic-Radman tried yesterday to justify what happened and said that it was simply a gesture of friendship, although he acknowledged that it was “clumsy” and apologized. Mirna Zidaric, a sports journalist for Croatian public television HRT, has compared that attempt to kiss the minister with the kiss that Rubiales gave soccer player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth.
“Disgusting, disgusting and inadmissible. I hope he has the same fate as Rubiales,” Zidaric wrote on Instagram.
Rubiales, who submitted his resignation, has been disqualified by FIFA for three years, and the Prosecutor’s Office has opened proceedings against him for an alleged crime of sexual assault.
“Forcibly kissing women is an act of violence, isn’t it?” Jadranka Kosor, former conservative prime minister of Croatia, commented on the social network X, formerly Twitter. Baerbock was one of the public figures who showed her support for Hermoso.
