Volen Siderov wants to send 100,000 Bulgarian Roma to Austria, he told Der Standard. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia News Agency)
Bulgaria has suggested that Austria accepts 100,000 Bulgarian Roma, in an interview for Der Standard that was published Friday.
Apparently irritated by a question about whether his party had fuelled ethnic tension in Sofia's Roma district of Fakulteta, Siderov told the newspaper that Austria should try to integrate 100,000 people from the minority group in Bulgaria.
As the conversation developed in a rather tense tone, Siderov said it would show him in a distorted light, and asked the journalist to stop the interview from publishing.
The leader of Bulgaria's "Ataka" even threatened he might sue the newspaper.
Siderov also confessed to feeling pursued, and said there were threats against him, particularly because his party "messed up the plans of the political Oligarchy."
Commenting on Bulgaria's planned EU accession next year, the nationalist said it would be better to join the bloc, but without the condition to close the country's only nuclear power plant, Kozloduy.