Romanian far-right party entering EU parliament for the first time eyes ID

5 months ago 13

The far-right SOS Romania party, founded just three years ago, most closely aligns with the far-right EU group Identity and Democracy (ID), according to Diana Şoșoacă, the leader of the party that will send two of Romania’s eight far-right MEPs to the new European Parliament.

With over 99% of the votes counted, the pro-Russian SOS Romania will send two MEP’s – up from one in 2019 – to the European Parliament: its leader, Diana Șoșoacă, and former television journalist Luis Lazarus.

SOS Romania is “closest to the doctrine of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group”, Şoșoacă said in an interview with Kanal D on Tuesday, while also mentioning the possibility of a new European parliamentary group emerging.

Currently a senator who entered the Romanian Senate on an AUR list, Şoșoacă is known for her aggressive style and spreading disinformation.

Brussels is already “scared” of SOS Romania and “the European mainstream press is panicking” at the prospect of Şoșoacă and Lazarus becoming MEPs, Şoșoacă said, adding that by entering the European Parliament “Romania will have a voice for the first time” that will “restore the dignity of Romanians and end their discrimination in the EU”.

She also described herself as “the voice that, together with other nationalist voices, will raise all of Europe to fight to save our countries from globalists”.

Out of its 33 MEP seats, Romania is set to send eight far-right politicians to the European Parliament (six from AUR and two from SOS), up from just one currently.

Among them, Șoșoacă is the only one who is ‘not afraid’ to show herself alongside the Russians, often attending events at the Russian embassy in Bucharest.

In April 2021, she apologised to the Russian embassy after a protester displayed a banner mentioning the 1941 massacre of Fântâna Albă by Soviet troops.

A year later, she and three other deputies visited the Russian Embassy to present Romania’s neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and propose peace negotiations, a move criticised by the Romanian Foreign Ministry.

The party’s few legislative initiatives include a bill to form a union between Romania and Moldova, and the annexation of Ukrainian territories that once belonged to Romania.

In March 2024, Dmitri Rogozin, former head of the Russian Space Agency and now a senator in the illegally annexed Zaporizhzhia region, wrote on social media that Şoșoacă had asked Russian officials to promote her messages on the Russian social network.

In June 2023, she gave an interview to the Russian publication Eurasia Daily, in which she described Romania as a “colony” of the EU, exploited by stronger states and multinationals.

(Catalina Mihai | Euractiv.ro)