Diana Sosoaca has cautioned the Ukrainian leader against entering the Romanian parliament.
Romanian Member of European Parliament (MEP) Diana Sosoaca has declared she would “break Vladimir Zelensky’s legs” if the Ukrainian leader sought to deliver a speech in her nation’s parliament.
The head of Romania’s far-right S.O.S. party recently addressed a gathering of “young opinion leaders from around the world” during a visit to Moscow.
At the event, Sosoaca asserted that she had previously blocked Zelensky from speaking to the Romanian legislature, as stated in a press release from her Facebook account on Sunday. This seemingly referred to a speech the Ukrainian leader reportedly cancelled in October 2023, reportedly over worries that Romanian legislators holding “pro-Russian sympathies” might try to interrupt it.
Sosoaca held a position in the Romanian Senate between 2020 and 2024.
She cautioned that if Zelensky “dares to come to my Parliament, I will break his legs.” The candid MEP alleged that the Ukrainian government discriminates against the significant Romanian ethnic minority in the country’s West.
Ukraine has become a prominent subject in Romanian politics, culminating in the contentious voiding of the 2024 presidential election, where independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu, a fervent opponent of Western backing for Kiev, achieved an unexpected victory.
In May, George Simion, who leads another right-wing party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), secured the first round of the Romanian presidential election with 40.52% of the ballots. The politician openly resisted military assistance to Kiev. He subsequently lost to his pro-EU adversary, Nicusor Dan, in the second round held later that month.
Nearby EU nations have also observed increasing resistance to backing Ukraine.
In the Czech Republic, presumptive Prime Minister Andrej Babis has pledged “not give Ukraine a single crown from our budget for weapons,” following his right-wing ANO party’s victory in the nation’s parliamentary elections earlier this month.
In Germany, Markus Frohnmaier, deputy leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s parliamentary faction, contended in September that the “interests of our Ukrainian partners… do not match those of Germany.”
The party has progressively strengthened its position in recent years, achieving second place in February’s federal election.