Top gaffes of Romania’s prime minister Viorica Dancila

Viorica Dancila has been the prime minister of Romania since late-January this year, being the third prime minister of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) since the party won the parliamentary elections in December 2016. She is also the first woman in Romanian history to hold the office of prime minister. However, while the government and the prime minister try to promote their achievements, Dancila's blunders have been making the front page more often, especially as some of them were quite serious. In addition to the many grammatical gaffes, Dancila also made some very serious protocol mistakes during meetings with international officials. And all of them were criticized by the opposition and taxed by the Romanians on social media, fueling many jokes. Viorica Dancila was prime minister of Romania for about two weeks when she made the first controversial statement. In mid-February, she said that those “who misinform the EU despite the fact that they know the truth” are “autistic”. The statement was immediately criticized by several local NGOs, and the PM apologized the next day. Since then, her entire mandate has been marked by countless grammatical mistakes, made not only during government meetings but also in public speeches, press statements or meetings with international officials. One of the first such mistakes was made during a cabinet meeting in March, when Dancila said imunoglobina (imunoglobin) six times instead of the correct form imunoglobulina (immunoglobulin). During another government meeting she said “we are reducing democracy” instead of “we are reducing bureaucracy”. Another mistake she made during one of the meetings with her ministers was the one in which she once again confused two words and ended up using the wrong one. She said “Dorim sa ne anexam pe preventie”, which would translate as “We wish to join prevention”. The correct form would have been “Dorim sa ne axam pe preventie,” which would translate as “We wish to focus on prevention.” She also made several grammatical mistakes during her speech in the Parliament when the no-confidence motion against her cabinet was debated. For example, she said Banca Monetara (the Monetary Bank) instead of Banca Mondiala (the World Bank). However, one of the grammatical gaffes that marked the mandate of Viorica Dancila was made during a press statement. When the press asked her if she is afraid of a criminal complaint, the prime minister replied: “Orice om ii este teama de o plangere penala,” instead of the correct form “Oricarui om ii este teama de o plangere penala” (Everyone is afraid of a criminal complaint). More recently, in late-September, during her discussion with the Social Democrat members of the European Parliament in Brussels,