Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova has appealed to members of Parliament to carefully consider the proposal to legalize illegal constructions, including Roma shantytowns.

The ad-hoc parliamentary committee on legal affairs recently approved a moratorium on the demolishment of illegal buildings and the ban to use them.

Up to now, 2 500 orders for the demolishment of constructions of different type, some in the Roma ghettos in many Bulgarian cities, have been issued.

The moratorium applies for illegal constructions, used as the sole permanent place of residence and built on the territory of state, municipal, and private property in the fishing villages along the Black Sea coast.

Fandakova stressed that Sofia municipality is currently devising the site developing plans, as such a plan has already been announced for the predominantly Roma “Fakulteta” neighborhood.

“The municipality already works on this and does not need such an ‘incentive’,” Yordanka Fandakova said, referring to the moratorium, according to the Focus news agency.

According to her “the regional mayors’ efforts in the last several years to demolish, though slowly, the illegal constructions will all of a sudden become impossible.”

Angel Dzhambazki, a municipal councilor from the marginal nationalist VMRO party, claimed the suggestion to legalize the Roma shantytowns was “a step toward the destruction of the Bulgarian state.”

He described the proposal as scandalous, discriminatory and offensive to the Bulgarian citizens.

“VMRO is ready to stage demonstrations to protest against the legalization of Roma shantytowns,” Dzhambazki said.

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