"Ataka" Leader Siderov: Nationalism Not Taboo in Bulgaria after Elections

The leader of the nationalist "Ataka" party, Volen Siderov, has declared that nationalism was no longer a taboo in Bulgaria after Sunday's Parliamentary Elections.

In his post-election press conference, Siderov emphasized that a number of the other right-wing Bulgarian parties had copied a lot of his party's their nationalist slogans, which meant that that topic was becoming increasingly important.

He said his party had shown a steady increase in public support - from 300 000 votes in 2005 to over 400 000 votes in the 2009 Parliamentary Elections.

Siderov congratulated Borisov and the GERB party on their victory but made it clear that they face a huge challenge in forming the next government.

Siderov accused the ethnic Turkish party DPS and its leader Dogan of conducting an anti-Bulgarian policy.

"That was a disgraceful moment for the Bulgarian democracy - having a drunken man hold a press conference", Siderov said claiming that Dogan had been drunk, and had been stuttering.

The Ataka party leader made it clear that the new government would put on a test with its first policies. He demanded from GERB a new attitude towards fighting "islamization, robbing the country, and corruption".

Siderov stressed that a number of the privatization deals in the recent years had to be reviewed because they were detrimental to Bulgaria, and demanded that the new GERB government to be formed investigate all the firms connected to the parties of the outgoing governing three-way coalition of the BSP, the DPS, and the NMSP.

"We want to see GERB investigate the whole criminal clique of the DPS, which is connected to Turkey's secret services, the Turkish mafia, and to stop the advancing islamization", the nationalist leader declared.

"The lisping man before me (i.e. Ahmed Dogan - editor's note) has become absolutely impertinent by threatening us with some sort of dangers", Siderov said urging the new government to take measures against any alleged criminal activity of the three-way coalition parties.

"The sending of thousands of voters from Turkey and the whole campaign in favor of DPS has been paid for by the Turkish government. This is a brutal interference of the Turkish government in Bulgaria's internal affairs", Siderov stated while demanding that Turkey apologize to Bulgaria for the 500-year yoke and the genocide over the Bulgarians during that period, which in his words, doomed Bulgaria to remain a small nation, instead of being a nation of 80-100 million people.