Spain’s Prime Minister has now waded into the discourse surrounding that fkd non-consensual kiss with a female player that assaulted our eyes on live television at the FIFA World Cup final, and he’s not the only one. A local newspaper has also reported that Luis Rubiales, the man responsible for the unsolicited kiss, apparently tried to pressure player Jenni Hermoso into endorsing his public non-apology. Yikes.
In case you aren’t across what happened, Spain midfielder Jenni Hermoso, 33, was making her way to the podium to accept her medal when president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Rubiales (who is 45) grabbed her head after a hug and kissed her on the lips.
It was super gross and ignited outrage after people called it unprofessional and likened it to sexual harassment, and it looks like Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agrees.
“We’ve seen his apology and that’s not enough, he must be much clearer and convincing in apologising,” he told reporters at a local news conference, per Reuters.
“He must take more steps to clarify a behaviour that is unacceptable.”
The apology in question involved Rubiales posting a video in which he said: “Surely I was wrong, I have to admit.”
However, he insisted the kiss was innocent and just an expression of jubilation — comments that came after he initially said on radio that the backlash to the kiss was “idiocy”.
But what’s worse is a local paper also reported that Rubiales allegedly “begged” Hermoso to appear alongside him in the apology video, and that the controversial coach Jorge Vilda apparently approached Hermoso’s family three times to try to convince her to do it.
The article, written in Spanish, is pretty damning and notes that Hermoso shouldn’t have to appear in or endorse an apology about an act that victimised her.
All this is even more concerning given Hermoso’s earlier comments about the incident.
Just after the kiss, Hermoso said during an Instagram Live that she “did not like” Rubiales’ advances. However, the following day, a statement was released by FIFA attributed to Hermoso which downplayed the incident and defended Rubiales.
Is it just me, or does all this smell a lot like damage control?
Either way, I hope that Hermoso is well. Or, at least that a certain someone loses their job.
