By Kate Connolly in Berlin
The Daily Telegraph

A camp pop star is on the brink of taking his political party into the Bulgarian parliament on a pro-gipsy platform.

Vassil Boyanov, 27, alias singer Azis, is the honorary head of the Euroroma party, which is fielding more than 100 candidates in this weekend's elections.

Euroroma, which hopes to speak for the country's 750,000-strong gipsy population, is expected to win several seats in what would be a breakthrough for Europe's largest ethnic minority.

Boyanov, who has a penchant for high heels, fake eyelashes and frills, has said he would like to be culture minister in a new government.

The singer, himself a Roma, or gipsy, has campaigned in front of audiences of up to 50,000 with songs which have become election slogans. Among his numbers are We may not be flawless, but we're legitimate and Don't you think I suffered enough?, their lyrics a nod to the strong resentment in Bulgaria towards the Roma.

Boyanov's entourage includes the party's deputy leader, Yuliana Kancheva, a model turned porn star who has appeared on the cover of Bulgaria's Playboy and starred in a Boyanov video wearing red lingerie. Also included is Ustata, a rap star, best known for the hit Clothes are just an obstacle to me.

Euroroma has livened up an otherwise dull election campaign which is expected to oust Simeon Saxe-Coburg, the former child king, who was embraced by an ecstatic electorate in 2001 after returning from half a century in exile.

Boyanov's main goal is to integrate Roma and non-Roma at home and across Europe. "We are working towards the integration of everybody," he said. The party also wants to improve the lot of gipsies, many of whom live without electricity or running water and are malnourished.

With a population of seven to nine million, most in central and eastern Europe, Roma are the continent's largest minority, outnumbering Turks in Germany and North Africans in France.
If successful, Euroroma would be the first party representing Roma to enter parliament in Sofia.

It has had to wage a fierce campaign against the Right-wing group, Attack, which has the slogan Bulgaria for the Bulgarians and has tried to ignite fears by claiming that fewer than a third of babies born in Bulgaria are Bulgarian Slavs.

Tension towards Roma spilled over last month when a professor was beaten and killed by a Roma gang in Sofia. Far-Right nationalists retaliated by setting fire to a gipsy ghetto and beating up its residents.

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