Bulgarian ultranationalist leader Volen Siderov. Photo by BGNES
Bulgarian ultranationalist leader Volen Siderov may end up losing his MP immunity after the latest scandal he stirred at a local airport.
Siderov is now investigated for hooliganism and causing slight bodily harm, Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday.
Two men, including a police officer, were injured in the incident.
During a late flight from the capital Sofia to the Black Sea city of Varna on Monday, the ultranationalist lawmaker started a quarrel with St?phanie Dumortier, a French cultural attach? in Bulgaria.
The quarrel continued in a Varna airport shuttle bus, where a young man attempted to intervene, calling Siderov a “simpleton”, according to witnesses.
Siderov and his entourage attacked the man, with the ultranationalist leader allegedly punching him in the face.
A police officer was also punched in the face in the scuffle that followed.
A total of 22 witnesses have confirmed Siderov’s involvement in the incident.
Volen Siderov, the leader of the ultranationalist Ataka party, has been involved in a number of scandals over the last few years. In 2010, he was detained in Germany after he hurled racist insults at the attendants of a Lufthansa flight.
In September, he and a group of Ataka MPs stirred a row in a renowned Brussels restaurant.
Earlier last year, he was spotted carrying a gun to the Bulgarian Parliament.
Even though it is not officially in power, Siderov’s anti-Western party remains a key ally of the country’s fragile Socialist-led coalition government.