Baerbock falls victim to a kiss attack - Croatia's ambassador becomes abusive

Mercury Baerbock falls victim to a kiss attack - Croatia's ambassador becomes abusive Article by Bettina Menzel • 2 hours. EU summit The Croatian Foreign Minister made a gross faux pas on the international stage at the EU summit on Thursday when he met his counterpart Annalena Baerbock. Berlin – The EU summit on Thursday (November 2nd) in Berlin was supposed to be about the expansion of the European Union. For a short time, the focus was instead on Gordan Grlic Radman, Croatia's foreign minister. During a routine photo opportunity, the Croatian politician stood next to his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (Greens). He seemed to want to take advantage of the opportunity - but not with content. Instead, the 65-year-old suddenly made clumsy advances in front of the camera. His appearance caused outrage in his home country. EU summit: Croatia's foreign minister apparently tries to kiss Annalena Baerbock at a press event While all the summit participants present on Thursday stood lined up in their place and waited for the photo, Croatian Foreign Minister Radman turned towards his German counterpart and extended his hand in greeting. Baerbock returned the handshake politely and then suddenly found himself in a presumably unpleasant position: Radman apparently tried to kiss. The Green politician maneuvered herself out of the situation by quickly turning away, as a video shared on the X platform (formerly Twitter) showed. Abusive behavior is always wrong, but it seems particularly out of place on the international political stage. Radman is a trained diplomat with many years of experience. Baerbock himself initially left the incident uncommented. In view of international crises such as the war in Ukraine and the terror in Israel, the German Foreign Minister obviously has more important things to do. The EU summit on Thursday was also of great importance for Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had called for a quick start to accession talks with his country. Appearance of the Croatian minister causes a stir in his homeland: “Deeply ashamed” What exactly the Croatian Foreign Minister wanted to achieve with the action remains unclear. The behavior was not well received in his homeland. Croatian media spoke of a “fiasco” and found the incident at least “unpleasant to watch”. Jutarnji list, one of the country's most read newspapers, apologized to Minister Baerbock in its cover story on Friday. They said they were deeply ashamed. There was also great anger towards the minister on social media. “He goes around the world embarrassing us not only with his nonsense but also with his behavior,” read one comment on X. If a male counterpart had stood next to the Croatian Foreign Minister, such advances would probably not have occurred. A kissing scandal recently caused a stir in Spanish football. The then president of the Spanish Football Association, Luis Rubiales, also showed aggressive behavior towards the soccer world champion Jennifer Hermoso at the FIFA World Cup award ceremony.