The ‘Ignasco’ Fiasco – Baerbock calls Cassis by the wrong name

Ironically, at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the German-speaking countries, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock repeatedly called her Swiss colleague Ignazio Cassis by the wrong name.

Apparently the two have a first name, because she kept talking about “Ignasco” when she really meant Ignazio.

But Cassis wasn’t perfect either: it took him several tries to pronounce OSCE – the abbreviation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – correctly. His apology followed promptly: with the many languages ​​he has to speak every day, he sometimes gets confused about the different abbreviations for the same organizations.

After all, he mastered the names of his counterparts without fail.

Before “Ignasco” was “Röstli”.

But Baerbock is not alone in her mistake: At the World Economic Forum (WEF), German Economics Minister Robert Habeck called then-newly elected Federal Councilor Albert Rösti “Mr. Röstli”:

(yum)