Bulgarian Nationalist Leader Seeks Apology over Airport Row

Bulgarian nationalist leader Volen Siderov presented his version about the scandal with the French cultural attach? at Varna Airport.

"I do not see why they want me to apologize to the French Embassy, it is rather the other way round," Siderov said at a press conference on Sunday.

Siderov insisted that he was not to blame for the accident, which subsequently caused Chief Prosecutor to demand that his MP immunity be lifted.

According to the official version of the events, on Monday evening, Siderov and 6 MPs from nationalist party Ataka, started a brawl on a Sofia-Varna flight, abusing French Cultural Attach? Stephanie Dumortier, and after that engaged with a fist fight with a man and a police officer.

On Sunday, Siderov presented a very different version of events, claiming that he had sought to defend the dignity of Bulgarians through his behavior.

The nationalist leader insisted that the French Cultural Attach? had made an abusive remark due to the badge he had been wearing on his lapel, claiming that Bulgarians were simpletons who did not deserve to be EU citizens, and had even told him to "Fuck yourself".

"Our politicians are used to behaving like vassals. Both politicians and the Foreign Ministry fail to respond when Bulgarians are being abused. When I defend Bulgarian dignity, this is hooliganism," he noted, as cited by the BGNES news agency.

Asked whether he would give up his MP immunity over the accident, he said that it would become clear in the coming days.

Siderov also insisted that Dimitar Bahnev, a passenger on the flight, had given him the finger, while police officer Kostadin Kolev had committed perjury about the blow to his face.

He said that both Bahnev and Kolev were directly related to center-right party GERB and he had fallen prey to a political trap.

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