The children of a Romanian family were taken in emergency care by the British social services and that was reason enough for the pro-Russian MEP Diana Şoşoacă to launch several false narratives
Who is not familiar with the legislation, Șoșoacă the politician or Șoșoacă the lawyer?
NEWS: "Regarding the situation of the Romanians in Leeds, Great Britain, whose children were taken by the British authorities, violating their right to be notified and the right to a defense, and who were not granted the presumption of innocence, I ask you to take the necessary measures and intervene firmly with the British authorities for the return of the children to their families and the repatriation of these families to Romania.
As a result of the unrest in Leeds, caused by the British Police who forcibly removed the children from their family, one of the minors pursued by the Police following the incidents that took place in the street jumped out of a window in fear and died today because of the injuries caused by the fall. This tragedy is unacceptable, and those who caused it must be held accountable! The responsibility for this death lies with the British authorities who literally kidnap children from their families!
Over the years, cases of Romanian children taken from their families have become a dangerous habit because the Romanian state does not protect them. More Romanian children are already born outside the country's borders than in Romania, and it is unacceptable that Romania never protects its citizens even though it has this obligation. The institutions of the Romanian state must exercise their responsibilities in this regard, especially since Law 272/2004 establishes that keeping children in the family environment, including with relatives, is a priority. [...]
It is worrisome that foreign states are trying to take away Romanian children, children who usually end up in the care of same-sex couples, which is prohibited in Romania, and precisely to prevent these abuses, the children must be kept in a Romanian family environment, and the Romanian state must do everything possible to repatriate these Romanians and thus bring a part of the diaspora back home."
NARRATIVE: 1. One of the children taken by the British authorities from the Romanian family in Leeds has died. 2. More Romanian children are born in the diaspora than in the country. 3. Only children taken from Romanian families are given for adoption to British couples of the same sex.
CONTEXT: On July 18, several violent protests broke out in the English city of Leeds, drawing attention to a case in which the British social services took in their care the children of a Romanian family as part of a child neglect investigation. The investigation had been started in April, when a 7-month-old baby was brought to the hospital by his mother, with a head injury. Initially, the baby and the other children of the family, of Roma ethnicity and Pentecostal religion, were placed in the care of relatives. But on July 18, the British authorities made a new decision, and the children were removed and placed in the care of a foster family.
Following the protests, resulting in destruction and material damage, nine Romanian citizens were detained by the British police , eight of whom were later released. The whole scandal was an opportunity for the ultra-religious nationalist propaganda to relaunch the narratives according to which the decadent West is attacking the Christian vein of the Romanian people, in an attempt to annihilate it. This is very much in line with Moscow’s typical narrative, which tries to validate the idea that there are various occult conspiracies in the West aimed at turning humanity away from Christianity. Various topics related to the LGBTQ community have been used for years to discredit the European cultural space. The European Union is presented as "Gayropa", a social construct in antithesis to the traditional, Christian, Orthodox values represented by Russia. It also promotes the idea of a so-called "LGBTQ agenda" that the West (including American Democrats) is trying to forcefully impose.
The Sputnik of Romanian politics
Declared the political personality of the year 2021 by the Kremlin’s mouthpiece Sputnik, Diana Iovanovici Şoșoacă has made herself noticed over time through various scandals in which she’s been involved, but also by promoting theses, false narratives and disinformation very similar to those launched from Russia. In her speeches she also promotes sovereignist, anti-European and anti-Ukrainian theses, while her political activity is limited to taking positions with discriminatory, homophobic and anti-Semitic accents, legislative initiatives that flagrantly contravene international law, as well as interventions bordering on ridicule .
PURPOSE: To undermine people’s trust in the authorities, to promote an anti-Western discourse, to validate one's own conspiracy theories, to provoke and amplify social tensions.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Despite Diana Şoşoacă's claims, the British authorities’ decision to remove the children was made on the basis of “legal and justified reasons”, according to the Romanian National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights and Adoption. Moreover, the statement that the social services violated the family's right "to be notified and the right to a defense" is a false one, as the family was informed beforehand about the decision, because, on the very morning of that day, they had appeared in court. Moreover, some of the children were already subject to "special protection measures", being placed in the care of the extended family. Regarding the death of one of the children, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, in a reply requested by Digi24, that "the information was not confirmed". In other words, it is nothing but a lie, for which Diana Şoşoacă did not present any evidence, nor did she refute it until the time of publication of this material.
Șoșoacă doesn't believe in statistics
The information that "more Romanian children are born outside the country's borders than in Romania" is also false. According to the National Institute of Statistics , in 2023, 155,390 newborns were registered in the country and 24,707 abroad. Moreover, the number of Romanians born abroad has been constantly decreasing, from over 67,000 in 2018, to almost 25,000 today.
Annually, between five and six hundred children are adopted by same-sex families in Great Britain, out of a total of approximately three thousand adoptions. Regarding the ethnic groups to which these children belong, the statistics show that, indeed, some 85% of all adopted children are white , but nowhere in the reports of the British authorities is there any reference to their nationality or citizenship. Searches to identify cases in which children from Romanian families were given for adoption to British same-sex couples returned only one result, namely a case dating from 2016, when the two children of a Romanian family, who got divorced in the meantime, were adopted by a homosexual couple.
Moreover, in the case of the Leeds children, they have already been returned to their extended family . They are now in the care of a paternal uncle, and are not registered in any British record for adoption. Thus, unintentionally, the officials in England observed the Romanian Law 272/2004, even if it cannot produce effects in another country, a fact that should have been known by an exceptional lawyer as Diana Șoșoacă claims to be.
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