Blunder cost the Press Secretary of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs her job. German Foreign Minister was handed a brochure with the image of France, painted in the colors of the German flag.
On March 9, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, together with Romanian counterpart Bogdan Auresku, held a press conference on the 135th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. After that, the German diplomat was handed the scandalous pamphlet.
Auresku has already apologized for the controversial gift, as has the printing house which printed it. And the MFA press secretary Bindusha Predescu was fired “for creation of an entirely unfavorable image”. The Romanian national news agency Agerpres, which ordered the printed brochure, promised to punish the editor responsible for the mistake. In the next three months, he will have his salary reduced by 10 per cent.
According to Romanian media, Steinmeier elegantly responded that he did not even notice the mistake. Perhaps he reacted with understanding, as his staff last month made the same mistake. During a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they instead used the flag of the neighboring Republic of Congo.
