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| First from the left, Valentina Petrovic performing the two-headed eagle and the other misses of Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania |
Valentina Petrovic apologized and withdrew from the Miss Intercontinental beauty pageant on Tuesday after Serbian media reacted angrily to a photo of her with other contestants from Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania making the double-headed eagle Albanian symbol with her hands, published on Instagram.
Republika, the digital version of the Srpski Telegraf tabloid, called the photo "shocking" and said Petrovic had "terrified Serbia", while the newspaper Politika wrote that the photo "rightly ignited social networks" out of anger at the use of the Albanian symbol by models.
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Petrovic wrote on Instagram that she "had no bad intentions" and that taking that photo was "momentary recklessness and idiotic spontaneity".
She apologized to "all members of my nation, the people of Kosovo and Metohija, my society and family."
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| Miss Serbia Valentina Petrovic vested in white |
"I am very sorry, so in addition to a deep feeling, I made the decision to ask the organizers for permission to leave the competition and thus get rid of the current pressure I am experiencing," Petrovic wrote. The competition will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Friday.
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The gesture of the Albanian double-headed eagle has angered Serbian nationalists in the past. In April 2019, a baker on the outskirts of Belgrade, Borca, became the target of nationalist outrage after right-wingers on Facebook reposted a photo of his cousin posing making the symbol with his hands.
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| First from the left, Valentina Petrovic and the other misses of Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania |
The nationalists gathered in front of the bakery, shouted nationalist slogans, played Serbian patriotic songs, put stickers with the words "Kosovo is Serbia" on the windows, and threw pigs' heads in the oven.
