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Diana Șoșoacă made the threat against the Ukrainian president on Facebook (Picture: Reuters) A pro-Russian politician has threatened to ‘break’ Volodymyr Zelensky’s legs if he tried speaking in Romania’s parliament. Diana Șoșoacă is no stranger to controversies – whether as a member of the European Parliament or as a star on TikTok. After entering politics in 2019, the former lawyer strongly opposed Covid-19 measures, including vaccines and peddled conspiracy theories. As the war in Ukraine broke out, she also adopted a pro-Russian stance, for which she was banned from the country. Șoșoacă again raised raised eyebrows across Europe after journeying to Moscow for a meeting of the international association ‘Friends of Russia’ on Saturday. The 49-year-old said about the Ukrainian president: ‘If he dares to come to my parliament, I will break his legs! ‘He must not give a speech in my parliament. ‘Why do I say “my parliament”? Because Romania’s constitution says that we, the members of parliament, are the representatives of the Romanian people and the only ones who can represent the sovereignty of the nation.’ Șoșoacă adopted a pro-Russian stance after entering politics in 2019 (Picture: Shutterstock) Repeating claims peddled by Kremlin propagandists, Șoșoacă also spoke about what she described as the ‘oppression of over a million Romanians in Ukraine,’ who are supposedly ‘forbidden to speak Romanian and practice Orthodoxy’. In her post on Facebook, she boasted that her ‘nationalist message’ was ‘highly appreciated by the youth’. She claimed that she ‘received applause’ from those present at the event, hosted by by pro-Putin activist Pietro Stramezzi. To her fans in the Balkan nation, Șoșoacă is known as ‘the mother of the nation.’ Taking a page out of Victor Orban’s playbook in Hungary, the politician has positioned herself as a defender of traditional values – It is the blend of nationalism, religious symbolism, and anti-establishment rhetoric that places her within the rise of the far-right across Europe. In 2024, she filed a presidential candidacy bid – but was barred by a court in Romania over her pro-Russian stance. Ukrainian media outlet, Ukrainska Pravda, reported that Șoșoacă is facing 11 investigations in Romania, including for promoting war criminals and denying the Holocaust. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.
