Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman apologized on Saturday after attempting to greet his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock with a kiss. The minister came under fire in his own country because of the incident, which took place at a meeting of EU ministers in Berlin.
Video footage shows how Grlić-Radman tried to kiss the German foreign minister this week as ministers gathered for a group photo. Baerbock quickly turned her head away. According to the German newspaper Bild, it was an awkward attempt to quickly greet each other.
In Croatia there was then criticism of Grlić-Radman. “Kissing women without consent is also violence, right?”, responded former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, who was in power between 2009 and 2011. Radman, for his part, said he was initially aware of no harm.
“Maybe it was an awkward moment,” Grlić-Radman told Croatian media. “If anyone sees anything bad in that, I apologize to that person.” The Croatian minister also said that a ‘warm greeting’ is very common. ‘It was a warm human interaction between colleagues.’
Tags: Croatian minister apologizes awkward kiss
