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A Romanian senator thinks her bag was stolen in Parliament by secret services

4 mins read
December 17, 2021

Diana Șoșoacă is a Romanian senator who thinks she is being persecuted because she is against Covid-19 vaccines. She is also in controversy for having allegedly sequestered a team of Italian journalists.

Diana Sosoaca, Romanian senator
Diana Sosoaca, Romanian senator declared her bag missing. She thinks it was stolen by the secret services.

On December 16, Romanian senator Diana Șoșoacă claims a thief took her briefcase in the Parliament building.

Inside the bag was a tablet that allows her to vote and have access to password-protected state institutions and her laptop, which contains draft legislative initiatives.

All members of Parliament have the same briefcase and someone could have taken it by mistake, ProTv News reports.

While the investigation team had not made any conclusion yet, Diana Șoșoacă still suggested this was part of a conspiracy to denigrate her. And she suspects secret services have stolen the bag.

Diana Șoșoacă a vocal antivax Romanian senator

It seems to me that everything is sewn with white thread, including this attempt to denigrate me, through so-called international journalists”, she told the media.

In fact, the missing parliamentary bag comes as Diana Șoșoacă has been at the center of a controversy this week. She is accused of having sequestered a team of Italian journalists.

On December 12, Lucia Goracci, a journalist from the Italian broadcast Rai 1, and her team went to Bucharest to interview the senator about her position on the Covid-19 vaccine. Romania and Bulgaria are the two countries with the lowest vaccination rates against Covid-19 in the European Union.

Diana Șoșoacă is a vocal anti-Covid-19 vaccine voice and is strongly against restrictions related to the pandemic. She considers there is no death and no pandemic and that there will be a Nuremberg II, referring to the trials for Nazi crimes against humanity during WWII.

In September, she violently prevented people from getting vaccinated. She also wore a sort of muzzle for the 30 years of the Romanian Constitution as a form of protest against the government. In November, a Romanian representative called the police because she wasn’t wearing a facemask in the building and was fined 500 lei (US$114) according to Romanian media.

Diana Șoșoacă during her speech at the anniversary of Romania's Constitution
Diana Șoșoacă during her speech at the anniversary of Romania’s Constitution | © Stiri pe surse, September 2021

In a controversy for allegedly having sequestered Italian journalists

The interview with Lucia Goracci didn’t go well. As the Italian journalist challenged her sayings, the senator said she was “with God and the truth” and considered the journalist pro-government, Lucia Goracci recalls in an interview.

According to the Italian journalist, the senator stopped the interview and asked them to leave her office. But she would then come ahead and lock the doors so that they don’t go out. The senator called the police reporting the team for trespassing. “I’m calling because people broke into my office and are threatening me”, the video from the Italian journalists shows.

The senator questioned Lucia Goracci’s true profession and repeatedly asked “who are you?” in the video recorded by the senator from her phone. To that, Lucia Goracci answers “I am a journalist”.

Erase the video. This is my office, you are not allowed to film here. I told you I would answer three questions, not to film here or there in my office. We agreed on three questions. Now, this is an insult to me as a senator of Romania, and you will pay for this”, the senator tells the crew.

And she later adds that “this is my office, this is my territory. You are not allowed to film everything you want.

At some point, Lucia Goracci was able to escape after someone came in. As the rest of the team was still inside, she came back with the police.

The senator’s husband also tried to confiscate the journalist’s phone while she was filming. He also allegedly whispered to their Romanian translator “we will find you”. People from the senator’s side would have told the team they would be thrown out of the window.

italian journalists, police and the senator
Police intervened after Romanian senator Diana Sosoaca reported the journalists trespassed on her property. Lucia Goracci and her team went to the police station to file a complaint | © TG1

The senator told the police they stole documents from her

Police then ended up going with the team of journalists to the police station. The journalists went to file a complaint but they were questioned and searched instead.

Lucia Goracci didn’t accept the report written by the police. The police then didn’t accept to release the team who called the Italian embassy to get out. Romania’s police kept the team until the Italian ambassador of Romania intervened and managed to let them go out after several hours.

Police defended themselves at a press conference on Wednesday and justified they searched them because the senator complained the team was in possession of drugs and that they may have stolen documents in the office of her law firm. The search proved unfruitful and “accusations resulted to be unfounded”, the police spokesperson explained.

At the request of Italian authorities, an investigation has been launched by Romania to determine the details of the incident and stressed out the country remained “deeply committed to protecting freedom of the press”, according to the ministry of Foreign Affairs statement. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă claimed that the incident was unacceptable.

Authorities investigate charges against the senator for having sequestered the journalists. Her husband is also charged with having assaulted a police officer during the altercation.

Diana Șoșoacă claims to be a victim of a conspiracy, fearing for her life

The senator feels she and her family is being lynched. Diana Șoșoacă claimed this was part of an international conspiracy led by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, because she is against vaccination campaigns.

She also feared that if the prosecutor for the case about her husband required bringing him to the police station, he would have been killed and would have ended up in a bag.

The senator also said she was attacked because some politicians provide her with sensitive information. “I have information, which, if I gave it to you now, would destroy part of the European Union and part of NATO. That’s why I’m being attacked this way.

On December 15, the Senator told the Romanian version of Sputnik, a Russian state-owned news agency, that she will run for Romania’s presidential elections in 2024. She also said she would be elected with more than 50% of votes directly in the first round.

But she also considered she needed three conditions to run and win the elections: “to be healthy, free and alive”.

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Clément Vérité

Clément is the executive editor and founder of Newsendip. He started in the media industry as a freelance reporter at 16 for a local French newspaper after school and has never left it. He later worked for seven years at The New York Times, notably as a data analyst. He holds a Master of Management in France and a Master of Arts in the United Kingdom in International Marketing & Communications Strategy. He has lived in France, the United Kingdom, and Italy.