| Volen Siderov | |
|---|---|
| Chairman of the National Union Attack | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 17 April 2005 |
|
| Member of the 41th National Assembly of Bulgaria | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 14 July 2009 |
|
| Constituency | 2-Burgas |
| Member of the 40th National Assembly of Bulgaria | |
| In office 11 July 2005 – 25 June 2009 |
|
| Constituency | 25-Sofia |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 April 1956 Yambol, Bulgaria |
| Political party | National Union Attack |
| Profession | Journalist |
| Religion | Bulgarian Orthodox Church |
Volen Nikolov Siderov (Bulgarian: Волен Николов Сидеров) (born 19 April 1956) is a Bulgarian politician and chairman of the nationalist party Attack. He is famous for his hard-line attitude towards minorities in Bulgaria, especially Roma and Turks.
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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 (Bulgarian: Демокрация), the official newspaper of the Union of Democratic Forces (Siderov played a major role in establishing the paper as the official publication of the right-wing 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 Bulgarian Socialist Party during local elections in capital Sofia. Later he unsuccessfully tried to get a place in the lists for MP in the ex-king Simeon II's party NDSV. 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.[1]
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% ([1]). 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: Central Elections Committee.) Soon afterwards, Siderov founded a political party of the same name.
Siderov has generated increasing controversy as Attack has improved at the polls. He has been labeled xenophobic, and his persona has been called "a studied imitation of Hitler".[2] He has criticised the "symbiotic relationship" between established political parties and organised criminal groups. He has also spoken against the purportedly "widespread discrimination" against majority ethnic Bulgarians by their own state, particularly in relation to the alleged non-prosecution by the state of crimes committed by ethnic minorities and the supposed free provision to certain ethnic groups of social services that have been denied to ordinary Bulgarians (explain).
Siderov and his party 'Attack' were among the few Bulgarian political forces that opposed the closing of the four Units of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. Units 1 and 2 were taken shut down in the end of 2003 and Units 3 and 4 were taken out of operation in the final hours of 2006, immediately prior to the country's accession to the European Union.
In February 2007, the newspaper "168 hours" published claims that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms has paid BGN 1.6 Million to "Attack". On February 23, 2007 Volen Siderov appeared in the offices of the "168 Hours", and asked for an explanation, which was not provided. Attack is suing the newspaper for libel.
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. Meanwhile some far left formations called their sympathizers to support Siderov. In the second round he lost, receiving about 24% of the vote.