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A far-right MEP has proposed to summon a priest to sanctify the European Parliament and cleanse it of “devils.”
Diana Șoșoacă, the eccentric leader of the Romanian far-right S.O.S. Romania party, was recently elected to her first term as an MEP. A former member of the upper house of parliament in her own country, she gained notoriety in Romania for her anti-immigration and anti-vaccine stances, as well as her disruptive behavior in the Bucharest legislature.
“Just like in the Romanian parliament, here the devils meet,” Șoșoacă told reporters this week.
“I will bring a priest to consecrate the offices and wherever else I can. It is my right to religion, to the expression of my religious faith,” she said.
Șoșoacă, who wore a traditional Romanian folk costume on her first day in the Parliament, added she had brought myrrh, a fragrant resin, and “the icon of St. Paraskeva,” a 10th-century female Balkans saint, into the building, and “immediately everyone’s attitude changed.”
She also recounted an exchange with European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola, in which she claimed Metsola had blanched upon seeing her.
“I went to Mrs. Metsola. When she saw me, she turned white,” Șoșoacă said. “I asked her for a meeting, she was getting whiter and whiter. She said, ‘Please write me the time you want, and I am open to talking with you.’”
Earlier this week, in a Facebook live video recorded during the vote to elect a president for the Parliament, Șoșoacă filmed herself crossing out the names of Metsola and opponent Irene Montero, and writing the words NEVER FOR UKRAINE, NEVER FOR LGBT, NEVER FOR THE EU DICTATORSHIP on her ballot. Despite such efforts, Metsola was elected to a second term in a landslide majority.
In her maiden speech in the Parliament on Wednesday, Șoșoacă — who has been criticized for her ties to Moscow — accused the EU of ruining Romania by providing aid to Ukraine, and called for a halt to the supply of weapons to Kyiv.
“You destroyed Romania, all the roads are destroyed, the Romanians are impoverished [from] helping the Ukrainians non-stop,” she said, adding that she had discussed ending the war with Moscow, as Russia was “the only party that wanted to discuss peace.”
Șoșoacă didn’t respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
