On 23 April, the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament convened for an extraordinary meeting to address the request for lifting the parliamentary immunity of MEP Diana Şoșoacă. The committee voted 17 -0 in favour, with one abstention. Following this, the report from the JURI Committee will be presented to the plenary of the European Parliament for consideration, most likely in the session scheduled for next week.
The request to lift Ms. Şoșoacă’s immunity was submitted by the Romanian Prosecutor General’s Office, which is currently conducting an investigation involving 11 allegations, including legionary propaganda, the promotion of figures convicted of war crimes, and Holocaust denial.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Șoșoacă has been indicted for:
1. Four counts of illegal deprivation of liberty.
2. Four counts of promoting the cult of genocidal individuals and advocating fascist, racist, or xenophobic ideas.
3. Publicly promoting anti-Semitic concepts.
4. Denying or minimising the Holocaust in public.
5. Outrage, as specified in the Criminal Code.
Diana Șoșoacă is the founder and leader of the right-wing extremist political party SOS Romania, which is characterised by its pro-Russian, anti-EU, and anti-United States positions. The party is known for advocating various conspiracy theories, denying the COVID-19 pandemic, promoting hate speech against minority groups—particularly the LGBT community—and endorsing a fundamentalist interpretation of Orthodox Christianity.
In the 2024 European elections, SOS Romania secured two seats in the European Parliament; however, as of now, Ms Șoșoacă is the only MEP representing the party. Her pronounced rhetoric has frequently drawn attention during parliamentary sessions. For instance, in a debate regarding monkeypox in September 2024, she claimed that the EU sought to instigate a new pandemic. Additionally, she reiterated her denial of COVID-19’s existence and made various allegations against EU institutions. This led to other MEPs calling for her microphone to be silenced, which occurred after she accused the EU of mass genocide and undermining Christianity.
Moreover, she faced bans from running in the Romanian presidential elections in both 2024 and 2025. On 5 October 2024, the Constitutional Court of Romania removed her from the list of presidential candidates, though it did not provide an explanation for its decision. In response, Ms Șoșoacă conveyed to her supporters on Facebook her belief that this decision reflected a conspiracy involving American, Jewish, and EU interests aimed at influencing the Romanian electoral process.
She was also prohibited from participating in the 2025 presidential elections, prompting her to share her reactions on the platform X. “PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1! THE REAL PRESIDENT OF ROMANIA: DIANA IOVANOVICI-ŞOŞOACĂ, THE ONLY LIDER OF NATIONALISTS! I have just been banned for the 2nd time to run for the Romanian presidencial elections.Romania is no longer a democracy, we are living in a globalist dictatorship,” Şoşoacă posted on her account on X on 15 March 2025.
