Though it may be unfair to extend the failure of the Romanian National Press Agency (Agerpres) and the Romanian External Affairs Ministry to an entire nation, let us not forget that part of their job is to represent the country. The recent faux-pas, confusing the French contours with the German one in a one-print commemorative brochure is, unfortunately, indicative of the dilettantism that has taken over the Romanian government.

The image of the German Foreign Affairs minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, holding the brochure (PDF) smiling, makes you wonder if he actually noticed the error himself and thought it was funny or he is also blissfully unaware of it. Only now has the news started to pour in on YouTube: wochit, OzoneLayer, Allemagne21.

This is particularly unfortunate, as the German minister was in Bucharest to express his country’s support for “open discussions” on Schengen accession – a huge issue in Romania.

On the bright side, this mistake is probably more insulting to France than it is to Germany (and the memory of that pinnacle of French military strategy, the Maginot line). Furthermore, on his Facebook account, the Bulgarian president was named “Romanian” (a mistake often made by BBC as well, or by rock stars greeting Romanians in Bucharest with Helllloooooo Budapest!).

What else is going on in Germany and is way above this incident in “most read articles” tops?

I really cannot tell whether this was truly a gaffe or simply a tongue-in-cheek joke at the expense of the French, who themselves took swipes at Romania and most of all at the tanned beggars who have very visibly taken over not just French, but so many other European cities. Watching the video above it is quite obvious that the German minister had a quick look at the brochure before holding it up. That, however, does not necessarily mean that he noticed the problem: there’s much more info crammed on the first page, including text in a language other than German, the map is small and he is holding it far from his eyes. And yet, a similar joke at the expense of both the French and the Germans is played upon by a Swedish animator in one of my fav music videos of all time, Paranoid Android.

Even the lyrics seem eerily appropriate.

Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all

Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking and squealing Gucci little piggy
You don't remember
You don't remember
Why don't you remember my name?

As for the Romanian side, they should not get off so easily.

1. Klaus Iohannis, an ethnic German of probable Luxembourgish descent, elected on the slogan “Romania of the job well-done”, which according to him does not translate well into German, is ultimately responsible for how Romania presents itself on the international stage. He had asked for Romanian diplomats to be recalled following election organization failures in diaspora right after his election. Since then, the French embassy made another faux-pas; in that incident, ambassador Bogdan Mazuru assumed responsibility but declined guilt.
2. Steinmeier’s Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu, conveyed his “profound regret”. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Brandusa Predescu, was fired (hn-brand). The salary of Alexandra Stefan, Agerpres expert, was reduced 10% for 3 months – a decision of her boss, Alexandru Giboi (hn-stefan). There’s something odd with women bearing the brunt of such failures, with virtually no repercussions for either Aurescu or Ponta.

Deutsche Welle covered the event in two main articles, none mentioning the Romanian gaffe.

To conclude, diplomacy is a game of purposeful ambiguity and differentiating between a planned and an involuntary mistake is next to impossible. What we do know is that Germany and France have evolved from enemies in the previous wars to strong allies and trade partners and are the main economies and engines of growth in the European trading block. Though Germany has surpassed France a while back in most economic indicators, France keeps a more or less well-deserved renown for its welfare state.

Our one advice is wherever you go, whether you go to travel or to work, make an effort to learn the local language!

Sources / More info: brochure, wiki-topcities, ld-frvde, ld-sdtn, ld-gr, ld-neonazi, ld-mp, ld-wage, ld-prof, hn-brand, hn-stefan, hn-excl, dw-ro, dw-en, hn-gafafws