Romanians came up with memes to illustrate that the idea was ridiculous. Photo:Utopia Group/Facebook.

Two Romanian ministers have been widely mocked on social media over suggestions that a sheep, one of the country’s folkloric symbols, should represent the country’s tourism industry at an international level.

The debate started on Tuesday after several tour operators told a business magazine that Tourism Minister Mircea Dobre intended to change the country’s brand image in tourist terms from a green leaf to a sheep.

Agriculture Minister Petre Daea, known for his eccentric and poetic speeches, defended his colleague’s idea.

“Look anywhere in the country how beautiful this animal is in Romania’s green pastures. Everybody can have a leaf – but nobody has sheep like Romania. You can find a leaf next to a sheep, but you can’t find a sheep next to a leaf,” he noted.

In the original statue in front of Romania’s National History Museum instead of the sheep there is a wolf. Photo: Alex Popescu/ Facebook.

The creation of Romania’s current emblem, half a green leaf, caused controversy in 2010, when the then Tourism Minister, Elena Udrea, spent 850,000 euros worth of EU funds on the design and tens of million of euros on promoting the brand.

Udrea officially launched the new emblem in July 2010 at the Shanghai International Expo. Some experts said it resembled the logo of a British construction company, but the minister rejected the allegations.

Current Tourism Minister Dobre explained on Tuesday that he had no intention of changing the logo before 2020, because Romania would then have to repay the EU the 850,000 euros.

But he said he did not understand the mockery, as he said many other countries used national symbols based folklore and on birds and animals.

A popular Romanian legend tells the story of two shepherds who plotted to murder a third, more successful one.

One of his sheep warned the victim of the plot. Despite that, the shepherd accepted his fate because he believed he would live forever by becoming one with nature.

Dobre said he was inspired by the examples of other countries when he came up with the sheep idea.

“France has the Gallic rooster, the Netherlands has the cow and Spain has its bull. Why can’t I speak of a symbol like the Miorita? [sheep]” he told the media on Tuesday.

However, Romanians continued to make fun of the two ministers on social media on Wednesday, publishing memes with sheep statues and funny logo ideas.

Oituz is a cargo ship transporting sheep from Romanian to the Middle East that accidentally sank a Russian military spy ship in the Bosporus in April. Photo: Kamikaze/Facebook.

“The Tourism Ministry wants to make the sheep our country brand. That is correct. Because the sheep represents us as a military power, not as a touristic destination,” Kamikaze satirical magazine posted on Facebook.

This referred to a recent incident in which a cargo ship transporting sheep from Romania to the Middle East accidentally sank a Russian ship in the Bosphorus.

“I think our country brand should be the neighbour’s goat,” journalist and satirical publication owner Julius Constantinescu wrote on Facebook, referring to an old Romanian saying: “May my neighbour’s goat die, too,” which expresses envy.

“The sheep refuses to become Roamania’s brand: I can’t be associated with a country of idiots!” a headline in the satirical publication Times New Romanian read.