[Romania] Romanian Right Turns Finnish Custody Fight into Anti-Western Propaganda

A nationalist group in Romania has used one Romanian woman's custody battle in Finland as evidence of the West's corrupt values.

The Orthodox Brotherhood, a Romanian nationalist organization that claims to have 2,000 members, and which promotes the slogan: "love God, nation and country", were prominently visible in early February, at a gathering of 50 people protesting outside the Finnish embassy in Bucharest, Romania. Groups like the Orthodox Brotherhood, have latched on to a story of one Romanian mother whose children were removed from her care by Finnish social services as evidence of Europe's breaking with "traditional family values". The story has since been used to manipulate public opinion against the European Union. 

Custody battle  

In 2007, the Romanian woman left her Finnish husband and took her children to a shelter for victims of domestic abuse. The later couple divorced, and according to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the mother was granted custody of the children. But, in 2016, Finnish social services decided that, based on the "unstable behaviour of the mother, damaging the development of the children," the children should be placed separately into care.

The mother has since accused Finland of violating her human rights and acting discriminatively against her because she is Romanian. She uploaded videos and audio recordings of her children during visitations to social media, and hence, lost her visitation rights.

Her story gained traction in Romanian media, where her story has become a political tool and a campaign for family values among some religious groups. The woman also has her own blog and Facebook page, and launched a fundraising campaign last November to cover her legal costs of her fight (which has since been supported by 160 donors).

At present, both the Orthodox Church in Romania and the Romanian Ambassador are in contact with the Finnish embassy to find a solution.