Two lawmakers, senator Diana Şoşoacă and deputy Mihai Lasca, have been ousted from the Alliance for Romanians’ Union (AUR) for “party insubordination” and for “inadequacy to the parliamentary conduct code”, AUR co-chairman Claudiu Tarziu announced.
Known for her tough anti-mask stance, Diana Şoşoacă has been a heavy denier of the sanitary protection rules prompted by the pandemic, including during the Parliament sessions and in private.
In December 2020, she wore no face mask at all during the plenary session of the Senate, arguing that she cannot wear masks due to some medical issues. Later on, it was revealed that she had no medical certificate to excuse her from wearing face masks.
The latest incident was when Şoşoacă has recently attended a private party, ignoring all safety measures related to face masks and social distancing.
AUR deputy Dan Tanasă also explained last evening that the decision to expel Sosoaca from the party had been taken “following a long series of incidents”, explaining that any member of AUR must observe the party statute, as well the statute of dignitary of the Romanian state.
“A Romanian senator doesn’t belong to a party with fiddlers, going live on Facebook. It is a decision (to expel her) taken following a long series of incidents, she proved she is not willing to respect the party’s regulations and the rules that any dignitary of the Romanian state must observe”, Dan Tanasă told Antena 3.
Friday night, Diana Șoșoacă attended a party in a restaurant in Iasi and was live from the party, with video footage revealing that no participant, who were singing and dancing, was wearing face masks.
“Happy birthday, Romania, it’s high time you wake up, life is for the living“, Șoșoacă shouted.
In another event in the past weeks, Sosoaca claimed from the Parliament tribune that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine “is destroying the national matrix of the Romanian people”. Even her party colleague, Sorin Lavric, would have asked for her microphone to be cut off. In retort, Diana Șoșoacă accused Lavric of “misogyny” and of being “politically correct”.
Sorin Lavric, who is the leader of AUR senators said that Diana Șoșoacă is “choleric and emanates only negative energy”. Lavric said that all members of the party’s Central Bureau had agreed to her ousting and also the party’s chairman, George Simion.
“To keep her in AUR means to compromise the party on long term”, Lavric said.
In retort to her ousting, in a Facebook post on Wednesday night, Diana Șoșoacă accused AUR leaders, Sorin Lavric and Claudiu Târziu, of “misogyny” and “double standard”, saying they had betrayed their voters and that she will keep on “fighting for people and to represent the country”.
As for deputy Mihai Lasca, he was expelled from AUR on the ground that, at the moment of him being put on the lists of candidates for Parliament, Lasca omitted to inform the party’s leadership that he was criminally prosecute for setting up an organized crime group and that he is convicted for bodily injury.
“His criminal past and his dishonest behaviour towards the party colleagues make Mr. Lasca incompatible with AUR’s principles and values,” according to a party’s press release.