Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă (born 13 November 1975) is a Romanian lawyer, activist, and

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

politician. Șoșoacă rose to prominence as an

anti-vaccine activist Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Romania Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. She has served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) for S.O.S. Romania since her election in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. Șoșoacă was elected to the

Senate of Romania 2012–2016 2008–2012 In December 2008, the Democratic Liberal Party (Romania), Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) and the Alliance PSD+PC, political alliance established between the Social Democratic Party of Romania, Social Democratic Party ...

in the 2020 election as a member of the

Alliance for the Union of Romanians The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (, AUR) is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Romania and Moldova. It was founded in 2019 ahead of the 2020 Romanian local elections, 2020 Romanian local and 2020 Romanian legisl ...

(AUR). She was later excluded from the party's parliamentary caucus, and joined S.O.S. Romania in 2023. She served in the Senate until her election to the European Election in 2024. Șoșoacă was barred from running for

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

in the 2024 election by the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

Early life and education

Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă was born on 13 November 1975 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. Her paternal grandparents were from

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

, modern

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

; Șoșoacă has stated that "half of me is from Skopje". Her paternal grandparents and their whole family migrated to

. According to Șoșoacă, an aunt of hers was imprisoned for opposing the Romanian communist regime. Șoșoacă's mother is Alice Florescu Bleotu, a gynecologist and specialist in

esotericism Esotericism may refer to: * Eastern esotericism, a broad range of religious beliefs and practices originating from the Eastern world, characterized by esoteric, secretive, or occult elements * Western esotericism, a wide range of loosely related id ...

. Șoșoacă was married to Dumitru Silvestru Șoșoacă, who was her third husband. Some sources stated she obtained a law degree from the Romanian-American University in Bucharest, and then worked for , Minister of Commerce in the

Năstase cabinet The Năstase Cabinet was a cabinet of ministers led by Adrian Năstase that governed Romania from 28 December 2000 to 29 December 2004 during the third term of President Ion Iliescu. It was a minority cabinet formed by the winner of the 2000 par ...

. Șoșoacă said she studied law at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

, at the urging of an uncle who was president of the Prahova County Tribunal.

Political career

Șoșoacă gained notoriety in Romania in 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, by protesting restriction measures on social media. She went on to become one of the main

anti-vaccine Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these Social networking, collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine h ...

figures in Romania.

Senate of Romania (2020–2024)

On 21 December 2020, she was elected to the

for the

Iași County Iași County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași. It is the most populous county in Romania, after the Municipality of Bucharest (which has the same administrative level as that of a cou ...

as a member of

(AUR). She later said that she did not want to enter the

Parliament of Romania The Parliament of Romania () is the national Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Romania, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania), Chamber of Deputies () and the Senate of Romania, Senate (). It meets at the Palace of the Parliament i ...

, but that she was forced by other people who pressured her. On 10 February 2021, she was excluded from AUR's

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

after AUR members

Claudiu Târziu Claudiu Richard Târziu (born 20 February 1973) is a Romanian right-wing politician and journalist. Together with George Simion, he was the co-president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a political party in Romania that gained ...

and

Sorin Lavric Sorin Lavric (born 27 November 1967) is a Romanian writer, philosopher and politician. Having started studying medicine in 1987, Lavric later began studying philosophy as well. Subsequently, as he did not want to be a physician, he focused entir ...

proposed her exclusion for not following the party's strategy. Subsequently, on 30 May 2022, she joined S.O.S. Romania, a party founded in November 2021. Șoșoacă also supports a Romanian withdrawal from the European Union. She holds

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...

views. She was fined for hate speech against

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

n-born Romanian physician and politician

Raed Arafat Raed Arafat (; , first name also spelled Rayed; born May 24, 1964) is a Syrian-born Romanian Intensive care medicine, intensive care physician of Palestinians, Palestinian origin, specialised in anesthesiology. He founded the SMURD, Mobile Emer ...

Views on Russia

Șoșoacă has also been recurrently criticized in Romanian media for her ties with

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The Russian state-controlled

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...

news agency named her "the politician of the year 2021 in Romania". In March 2022, in the midst of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Șoșoacă together with 3 other MPs met with the Russian ambassador in Bucharest to discuss a "memorandum related to the Peace of Bucharest" and Romania's

neutrality Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

in the context of the invasion. This meeting had not been approved for representation by the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

leadership and one of the MPs, PSD member Dumitru Coarnă, was expelled from his party shortly afterwards. Șoșoacă was appreciated by Killnet (a pro-Russia hacking group which launched in 2022 a series of cyberattacks on multiple Romanian websites), after she said that Romania must not get involved in the war in Ukraine. In March 2023, she proposed a law project on the Romanian Parliament for the annexation by Romania of

Northern Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

, the

Hertsa region The Hertsa region, also known as the Hertza region (; ), is a region around the town of Hertsa within Chernivtsi Raion in the southern part of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania. With an area of around , it ...

Budjak Budjak, also known as Budzhak, is a historical region that was part of Bessarabia from 1812 to 1940. Situated along the Black Sea, between the Danube and Dniester rivers, this #Ethnic groups and demographics, multi-ethnic region covers an area ...

Northern Maramureș Northern Maramureș (, ; ; ) is a geographic-historical region comprising roughly the eastern half of the Zakarpattia Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania. Until 1920, it was part of the Maramureș subregion of Transylvani ...

and Snake Island from Ukraine, as they were "historical territories" that belong to Romania as stated in the law project. In retaliation, Ukraine announced it would impose sanctions against Șoșoacă, labeling her as a threat to Ukrainian national security. On 21 November 2023, Diana Șoșoacă interrupted a secret session of the Parliament of Romania, during which footage of the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

was presented, yelling "Palestine". She took a pro-

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

stance during the conflict, stating that Romania should be neutral and mediate the conflict, that

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

does not represent all

Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...

and that Israel is committing

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

. During a Romania-Israel friendship day event in the Romanian Parliament, she is alleged to have shouted "Long live the Guard" in protest, in reference to the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...

Member of the European Parliament (2024–present)

In June 2024, Șoșoacă was elected as a member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

. She suggested that the Parliament should be "blessed" and "purified" by a priest. On the first day of the Strasbourg Plenary, Șoșoacă wore a muzzle over her face as a sign of dissent during

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; ; born 8 October 1958) is a German politician, serving as president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding position ...

's opening speech. Later, she loudly protested when French MEP

Valérie Hayer Valérie Hayer (; born 6 April 1986) is a French jurist and politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019 in the Renew Europe. Since 2024, she has been leading the Renew Europe group in parliament. She ...

suggested that abortion rights be included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. After interrupting Hayer's speech several times, she was escorted outside the chamber.

2024 and 2025 Romanian presidential election

Șoșoacă intended to run for

in the 2024 election. However, she was barred from running by the

, which removed her name from the list of candidates on the November 2024 ballot. In response, she said " is proves the Americans, Jews and the European Union have plotted to rig the Romanian election before it has begun". The court's decision was called "an unprecedented threat to democratic values" by politicians on all sides. The court's ruling, which was split 5–2 along party lines, was criticized by some for being politically motivated, including by the National Liberal Party, which announced it was ending its governing coalition with the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

as a result. On 13 March 2025, Șoșoacă registered her candidacy for the

2025 Romanian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Romania on 4 May 2025, with a second round on 18 May 2025. Nicușor Dan and George Simion were the two candidates who advanced to the second round. Presidency of Nicușor Dan, Dan's term as the seventh preside ...

, which was rejected by the Central Electoral Bureau.

Controversies

2021 reporter controversy

On 12 December 2021, Șoșoacă was interviewed by Italian reporter Lucia Goracci who was investigating the anti-vaccine movement for

Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television channel and is known for broadcasting ...

. After a very tense exchange, Șoșoacă locked the door of her apartment and called the police, stating that someone had entered her office. Once police had arrived, Șoșoacă asked that all of Goracci's footage be deleted. Goracci said that she and her crew had been held captive by the senator and that she had been punched by Șoșoacă's husband without the police intervening. The stalemate ended after eight hours, following an intervention by the Italian embassy.

False claims about the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes

In February 2023, she falsely accused the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

of causing the Turkey–Syria earthquakes with a seismic weapon. Șoșoacă used

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

to spread

fake news Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person ...

on the matter, using footage from 2009 falsely claiming to be from 2023.

Iron Guard commemoration (2024)

Police officers from

Ilfov County Ilfov () is the Counties of Romania, county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but, after the fall of communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, whi ...

announced that they are investigating and opening a criminal case according to emergency ordinance no. 31/2002 after several people, including Șoșoacă, commemorated

leader

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938), born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu, was a far-right Romanian politician, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or ''The Legion of ...

at a

wayside cross A wayside cross is a cross by a footpath, track or road, at an intersection, along the edge of a field or in a forest. It can be made of wood, stone or metal. Stone crosses may also be conciliation crosses. Often they serve as waymarks for wal ...

in Tâncăbești. Some of the participants raised their hands in the

Hitler salute The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute, or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. The salute is performed by extending the right arm from the shoulder into the air with a straightened han ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosoaca, Diana 1975 births Antisemitism in Romania Anti-Zionism in Romania Living people Lawyers from Bucharest Romanian people of Macedonian descent 21st-century Romanian women politicians Politicians from Bucharest Alliance for the Union of Romanians politicians Members of the Senate of Romania Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Romanian anti-vaccination activists COVID-19 conspiracy theorists Far-right politics in Romania Romanian conspiracy theorists Euroscepticism in Romania Romanian anti-same-sex-marriage activists MEPs for Romania 2024–2029