- Gordan Grlic Radman apologises for ‘awkward’ second with German minister
Croatian Overseas Minister Gordan Grlic Radman has sparked controversy after he was caught on digital camera trying to kiss his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock whereas posing for a gaggle picture in Berlin.
The video reveals Radman, 65, reaching out to Baerbock, 42, to shake her hand and attempting to kiss her on the cheek at a photoshoot throughout an EU convention on Thursday, whereas the German international affairs minister awkwardly swivels her head away from him.
The gesture drew fierce debate on social media and sparked outrage from feminist teams, however Grlic Radman shrugged off the criticism.
‘I do not know what the issue was… We all the time greet one another warmly. It’s a heat human strategy to a colleague,’ he advised reporters.
Ms Baerbock has not but commented on the incident which the German media have dubbed ‘Kuss-Attacke’ – the ‘kiss assault’.
It comes simply days after Luis Rubiales, former head of the Spanish soccer federation, was banned from the game for 3 years for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the mouth when she and her teammates received the Girls’s World Cup.
Radman mentioned he was not instantly conscious that he might have embarrassed his German counterpart by being overly pleasant.
‘Perhaps it was a clumsy second,’ Radman mentioned.
‘If somebody noticed one thing unhealthy in it, then I apologise to whoever took it that means.’
Nevertheless, outstanding Croatian girls’s rights activist Rada Boric slammed the minister’s transfer as ‘extremely inappropriate’, including that ‘heat greetings’ ought to occur solely amongst these whose relationship permits kissing.
‘It is clear that such a relationship does not exist right here and that the (German) minister was left stunned with such closeness,’ Boric advised the Jutarnji Record outlet.
Former Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor additionally took to social media to criticise Grlic Radman.
‘Violent kissing of ladies can also be known as violence, is it not?’ Kosor wrote on X, previously often called Twitter.
Not like the French and the Italians, Slavic Croats are recognized for being extra reserved of their greetings.
A journey information for these visiting the nation reads: ‘Greetings with kisses, one on every cheek, are often reserved for household or very shut mates.’
Though Ms Baerbock has not commented on the kiss, sources near the minister tried to minimize the incident and advised German tabloid Bild that her counterpart was late and had simply been clumsy.
They’re understood to be on first-name phrases.
