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The Romanian Parliament will vote in favor of abandoning the country’s neutrality in a secret sitting, the pro-Russian Romanian Senator Diana Șoșoacă says.
The Romanian Constitution, the perpetual victim of international conspiracy theories
NEWS: “Diana Iovanovici-Șoșoacă has criticized a sitting of the Permanent Bureau of the Romanian Parliament wich decided to aprove a proposal of Senator Silviu Vexler (from the group of national minorities) to hold A SECRET SESSION of the Romanian Parliament on Tuesday, behind closed doors, which is expected to decide Romania’s support for Israel. Diana Iovanovici-Șoșoacă says the decision is in breach of Parliament regulations, which dictate sessions must be public. Parliament can discard Romania’s neutrality in a conflict that does not concern it and which is in serious violation of international conventions, Diana Șoșoacă further argued. Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă’s guest was historian Corvin Lupu, who said that such an endeavor seriously violates Romania’s foreign policy, recalling the latest meeting of the United Nations Organization, where our country abstained from voting, thus affirming its neutrality. At the same time, in her talk with historian Corvin Lupu and journalist Miron Manega from the Certitudinea (Certainty) magazine, Diana Șoșoacă suggested that, if this meeting is held, there will be a conflict of interests between state institutions, in the sense that Parliament takes over the foreign policy prerogatives of the president and the Foreign Ministry, thus violating Constitutional provisions”.
NARRATIVE: Parliament will vote in favor of abandoning the country’s neutrality in a secret sitting and will involve Romania in the conflict against Hamas on the side of Israel, contrary to existing legislation.
BACKGROUND: The October 7 Hamas terrorist attack came as a shock for the entire international community, triggering long-term regional and international consequences. Under these circumstances, the majority of states and international organizations from all over the world have reacted to the ensuing conflict in line with their own interests. Declarations of solidarity with the state of Israel were expressed by a number of countries and Western organizations. Right now, however, no country has expressed plans to intervene military in the conflict, nor has Israel requested any such action.
Designated the most important political figure of 2021 by Sputnik, Senator Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă has been linked over the years to numerous scandals, and stood out for promoting fake news and disinformation narratives very similar to those fostered by Russia. Șoșoacă first gained visibility after taking part in protests against the so-called “medical dictatorship”, organized by people close to the Russian Embassy in Bucharest. She later started spreading disinformation and fake news regarding the coronavirus and anti-COVID vaccines (see, for instance, a narrative debunked by Veridica according to which the anti-COVID vaccine induces sterility across three generations), and made efforts to combat the vaccination campaign. Diana Șoșoacă also fostered sovereigntist, anti-European and anti-Ukrainian theses, which were also featured over the years in numerous disinformation articles and fake news spread by Russia. Her activity in Parliament amounts to speeches with discriminatory, homophobic and anti-Semitic overtones, legislative initiatives that blatantly violate international law, as well as allegations bordering ridicule.
PURPOSE: To promote nationalist, and by extension, anti-Western rhetoric, to amplify anti-Semitic sentiment and at the same time to validate previously promoted conspiracy theories. To boost approval ratings ahead of the elections.
The secret everybody knows
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The statute of the joint sittings of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate stipulates, under Section 4 – Joint sittings, Article 31, that the joint plenary sessions of the two chambers of Parliament can be secret if half plus one of the deputies and senators in attendance vote to keep the session closed to the media and the public. Parliament, the presiding speaker or the president of a parliamentary group can move to make sessions secret when they refer to debates on topics of national security or pertaining to the protection of personal data or other sensitive topics. The Parliament session in question is devoted to the latest developments in Israel.
Ever since the conflict broke out in Gaza, the Romanian Parliament adopted a declaration of solidarity with Israel, firmly condemning the Hamas terrorist attacks, the crimes and violence targeting the civilian population, the infiltration of terrorists and the abduction of people. Therefore, any expression of solidarity with Israel following this secret session would not bring anything new to the table, and at no rate can they be the result of secret understandings behind closed doors. In fact, keeping the Parliament sitting secret is not aimed at adopting a belligerent position in this conflict, but merely at preventing the public dissemination of extremely violent images taken from a film provided to the Romanian Parliament by the Israeli Armed Forces, filmed with body-cams attached to Hamas fighters, CCTV cameras or the phones of the victims or rescuers, which include footage of children getting killed or other victims being beheaded.
The abstention at UN level, which the S.O.S. press release mentions, refers to the United Nations tabling a resolution calling on Israel and Hamas Palestinian fighters to immediately enforce a humanitarian ceasefire, without asking any state of take sides in the conflict. Alongside Romania, Germany and the United Kingdom also abstained, two countries which sovereigntist propaganda has accused in the past of triggering wars. The number one target of Romanian nationalists – Ukraine – also abstained. Besides, the USA, Austria and Hungary voted against the resolution, which speaks to its purely formal character, being void of any foreign political effects other than those impacting international reputation.
As regards the claim about Parliament illegally taking over the prerogatives attributed to the President and the Foreign Ministry under the Constitution, we recall that foreign policy strategies are elaborated by Parliament once they have been debated in Parliament’s foreign policy subcommittees. Moreover, without Parliament’s approval, any international treaty signed by the president on behalf of Romania becomes null. In fact, international treaties and agreements signed by the head of state or government are negotiated in line with foreign policy directives set out by Parliament.
Finally, Romania can’t abandon its neutrality, for the simple reason Romania is not a neutral state, evidence of which is its membership to a military organization – NATO. It is also worth noting that the European Union has described Hamas as a terrorist organization.
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