Volen Siderov

Volen Nikolov Siderov ( _bg. Волен Николов Сидеров) (born 19 April 1956) is a controversial Bulgarian politician and chairman of the far right nationalist party Attack. He is famous for his hard-line attitude towards minorities in Bulgaria, especially Roma and Turks.

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Early life

Siderov was born in 1956 in Yambol, Bulgaria. He received an undergraduate degree in Applied Photography in Sofia, and before the fall of Communism in 1989, worked at the National Literature Museum as a photographer.

After the fall of Communism, Siderov became a member of the newly-established Movement for Human Rights. During the fall of 1990, he became the editor-in-chief of "Democracy" ( _bg. Демокрация), the official newspaper of the Democratic Party at that time (Siderov played a major role in establishing the paper as the official publication of the centre-right party).

In 1992, he was fired from the newspaper and put an end to all relationships with his political partners. In 1995 Siderov led the PR Center of the BSP – former communists – during local elections in capital Sofia. Later he unsuccessfully tried to get a place in the lists for MP in ex-king Simeon II party NMSS (Bulgarian: НДСВ. At one point he was appointed deputy editor-in-chief of "Monitor", a newspaper of a political orientation that could be described as nationalist and conservative. In 2000, Siderov was presented with the award of the Union of the Bulgarian Journalists. Later, he was fired from "Monitor" as well, and he came to be the host of "Attack", a talk show on the Bulgarian cable TV channel "SKAT". In it, he chastised the perceived corruption of the Bulgarian political establishment and blamed Bulgaria's poor economic condition on the ethnic minorities.In 2002 Siderov was invited to a controversial anti-globalisation conference in Moscow where he rubbed shoulders with people like Ahmed Rami and David Duke. [cite web
year = 2006
url = http://www.bghelsinki.org/obektiv/2006/127/127-02.pdf
title = The history of a photograph
publisher = Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
language = English
accessdate = 2007-10-09]

Rise in politics

During the 2003 local elections Siderov ran for mayor of Sofia on the ticket of the marginal National Association-BZNS Party. He received 1,728 votes, or 0.45% ( [http://izbori.is-bg.net/tour1/rez/1-2246-2.html] ). That attempt passed largely unnoticed for the general public.

During the June 2005 parliamentary elections, already a popular TV host, Siderov organised and led the nationalist coalition "Attack", named after his talk show. Surprisingly, the coalition won 8.14% (296,848 votes) of the total vote, thus becoming the 4th largest party in parliament. (Source: [http://www.2005izbori.org/results/index.html Central Elections Committee] .) Soon afterwards, Siderov founded a political party of the same name.

Controversy

Since then Siderov has continued to criticise the symbiotic relationship between established political parties and organised criminal groups. He has also spoken against what he describes as the discrimination against ethnic Bulgarians in their own state, particularly in relation to the non-prosecution by the state of crimes committed by ethnic minorities and the free provision to certain ethnic groups of social services that have been denied to ordinary Bulgarians. Siderov has been stigmatised and rejected as a populist and a xenophobe by virtually the entire Bulgarian establishmentPOV-assertion, including the mainstream media and political partiesFact|date=October 2007. He has been in the centre of a number of scandals, notably a notorious car accident on the Trakia highway. Siderov claimed that the incident had been an "assassination attempt", whereas the other driver asserted that Siderov's collaborator Pavel Chernev had broken his car window, punctured his tyres, hit him and threatened to kill him. Chernev at first confirmed Siderov's version, but later stated that Siderov had ordered him to give false testimony; he has since left the parliamentary group to create a rival nationalist organisation. Siderov had allegedly been trying to conceal the fact that his driver had been Lyubomir Bakardzhiev, a man with criminal record — according to testimony by Chernev and Bakardzhiev himself. ( [http://www.eubusiness.com/East_Europe/060428152510.960hy7ou] )

On February 23, 2007 Volen Siderov together with about 50 representatives of his party and supporters rushed in the offices of the "168 Hours" weekly newspaper. Another group of about 100 people were waiting for a signal to attack the building in front of it. The crowd was irritated by an article, published in "168 Hours". [cite web
year = 2007
url = http://www.sib.bg/en/news8.html
title = SEEMO Protest Bulgaria
publisher = Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
language = English
accessdate = 2008-05-25] According to it, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a party of the ethnic minorities in Bulgaria, has paid BGN 1.6 Million to "Attack".

Volen Siderov and his deputy Pavel Shopov went to the cabinet of Nikolai Penchev (Editor in Chief of "168 Hours") and refused to leave unless they were told the name of the journalist, who wrote the article. Afterwards the group started searching for him yelling insults.

Presidential election

Siderov ran for President in the 2006 presidential election. In the first round on October 22 he received 21% of the vote and qualified for the runoff on October 29 against incumbent Georgi Parvanov, who had 65%. Parvanov was not declared the winner after the first round because, in accordance with Bulgarian electoral law, at least 50% of all registered voters had to take part in the first round for that. Mainstream right-wing parties in Bulgaria (the UDF and the DSB) refused to back any of the candidates, despite appeals by many observers, notably by fellow conservative and European People's Party chairman Hans-Gert Pöttering, to support Parvanov (the situation was commonly compared with the way French left voters supported mainstream right-wing candidate Jacques Chirac against far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002). The centrist National Movement for Simeon II ultimately decided to back Parvanov. In the second round, Siderov lost with about 24% of the vote.

References

External links

* [http://www.ataka.bg/ Attack Party official website]
* [http://www.vestnikataka.com/ The newspaper of the Attack party]
* [http://www.skat.bg/ The cable TV SKAT]
* [http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/News/309+B7.htm Bulgarian MP and Roma scandal]
* [http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2006/05/01/feature-01/ Bulgarian prosecutor seeks go-ahead to investigate ultranationalist politician]
* [http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/mps-from-bulgarias-ataka-face-false-testimony-charges/id_14734/catid_66/ FACE FALSE TESTIMONY CHARGES]
* [http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/investigations-over-ataka-fight-continue-in-bulgaria/id_14775/catid_66/ INVESTIGATIONS OVER ATAKA FIGHT]
* [http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=s1336/ Attack’ storms editor’s offices]

Persondata
NAME=Siderov, Volen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Волен Сидеров (Bulgarian)
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Bulgarian politician
DATE OF BIRTH=19 April 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH=Yambol, Bulgaria
DATE OF DEATH=living
PLACE OF DEATH=