The European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs has voted unanimously to recommend stripping the parliamentary immunity of Romanian MEP Diana Șoșoacă — a far-right politician with a documented pro-Kremlin position, a record of violent anti-Ukrainian statements and 11 criminal charges in Romania, including Holocaust denial and fascist propaganda.
The vote took place on April 23 at an extraordinary closed-door session of the JURI committee, as confirmed by the committee’s official agenda. According to Digi24, which reported the result from inside the committee, 17 members voted in favour, none against, and one abstained. The recommendation now goes to a full plenary vote, expected as early as next week. If adopted by a simple majority, Romania’s General Prosecutor’s Office will be free to pursue a full criminal investigation against her. Lifting immunity does not affect her MEP mandate.
Who Is Diana Șoșoacă
Șoșoacă is a Romanian lawyer and the leader of SOS Romania, a far-right nationalist party. She served as a senator from 2020 to 2024 before being elected to the European Parliament in June 2024. She built her political profile on anti-Western rhetoric, anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and open admiration for the Kremlin — a combination that made her one of the most disruptive and most closely watched figures in the current Parliament.
Her pro-Russian position is extensively documented. In October 2025, she was the only MEP to attend the 20th anniversary of Russia Today in Moscow – an event presided over by Vladimir Putin, who personally thanked her for coming. At that same event, she appeared on Russia Today and described herself as “pro-Putin” and said she “loves Russia”. She has written personal letters to Putin, visited the Russian Embassy in Bucharest for unauthorised consultations with the Russian ambassador in March 2022, and been named “politician of the year in Romania” by Sputnik in 2021. The pro-Kremlin hacker group Killnet praised her after she called for Romania to stay out of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Her attacks on Ukraine are equally explicit. In March 2023, she submitted a bill to the Romanian parliament proposing the annexation of several Ukrainian territories — Northern Bukovyna, the Hertsa region, Budzhak and Snake Island — describing them as historically Romanian lands. She has consistently opposed all military and financial support for Ukraine, spread Russian propaganda narratives about the Romanian minority in western Ukraine and called Zelenskyy a “Nazi”. In October 2025, speaking in Moscow, she boasted of having blocked Zelenskyy from addressing the Romanian parliament and issued an open threat: “If he dares to come to my Parliament, I’ll break his legs.” Ukraine’s Security Service responded by banning her from entering the country for three years, citing her support for Russia’s war and her challenge to Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
A Record of Disruption in Brussels
Șoșoacă’s conduct inside the European Parliament has been no less extreme. On her first day in Strasbourg, she wore a dog muzzle over her face during Ursula von der Leyen’s opening speech as a gesture of protest. In her first address to the plenary, she attacked Ukraine and accused its government of oppressing the Romanian minority. Later that month, in July 2024, she was physically escorted from the chamber after repeatedly interrupting French MEP Valérie Hayer during a debate on von der Leyen’s re-election. As she was removed, she waved a black garbage bag, raised an icon and shouted, “In God we trust.” EP President Roberta Metsola invoked Article 182 of the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure to have her excluded for the remainder of the session. She was subsequently sanctioned, losing her daily allowance and right to participate in plenary for seven days.
Before the July incident, she had promised to bring a priest to Brussels to “exorcise the devils” from the Parliament building. In a subsequent live stream, she accused von der Leyen of having “killed people” through COVID-era vaccine mandates. She also praised the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu during a plenary session.
The Criminal Charges
Romania’s General Prosecutor’s Office launched formal criminal proceedings against Șoșoacă in October 2025, after a series of incidents that drew widespread attention. The charges include four counts of unlawful deprivation of liberty — related to an incident in which she and her husband allegedly held a team of Italian journalists captive and assaulted them; four counts of publicly promoting the cult of persons convicted of genocide and war crimes, promoting fascist and legionary ideology, Holocaust denial, and antisemitism; and insulting a public official.
The legionary propaganda charges stem in part from an incident in October 2024, when — after the Constitutional Court invalidated her presidential candidacy — she went live on YouTube and publicly honoured Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the founder of Romania’s interwar Iron Guard. “From this moment, Romania is over. I can only say ‘Long live the Legion and the Captain’ — who were killed by the same Jewish power that acted then and now,” she said. In May 2024, she had already shouted “Long live the Guard!” from the podium during a solemn session of the Romanian parliament marking friendship with Israel.
Romania’s Constitutional Court, when blocking her presidential bid, noted her “constant antidemocratic and anti-Semitic speech” on the record.
Șoșoacă has rejected all charges as politically motivated, calling the proceedings “a globalist dictatorship” and framing them as an attack on “the will of hundreds of thousands of Romanians” who voted for her. At her JURI hearing on March 24, she told committee members the immunity waiver would be “an abuse and a dangerous precedent”.
What Comes Next
The JURI committee’s report will go to a plenary vote, most likely during next week’s session in Strasbourg. A simple majority is sufficient for the waiver to be adopted. The precedent is recent: in November 2025, the European Parliament voted to lift the immunity of Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun in a comparable case involving extremist conduct inside the chamber.
