Nationalist Leader Starts Brawl Over Summons

The whole incident began when Volen Siderov, the leader of Bulgaria's ultra-nationalist party Ataka, was summoned to appear in court as a defendant at a press conference Wednesday. Siderov, originally an editor of the two conservative newspapers, has been criticized for blaming Bulgaria's problems on its minority populations, and has been labeled populist and a xenophobe by virtually the entire Bulgarian establishment. Despite all this, Siderov managed to run for President in the 2006 presidential election, and gained a stunning 21% of the vote, but lost in the second round.

The case Siderov has been summoned to defend, dubbed the Trakia highway case, involves the proposed construction of a highway, and the concession between three Portuguese and two Bulgarian firms that would last 35 years and was decided without counter-bids or much transparency into the agreement. The deal has been criticized as being "highway robbery" - get it? - and clashing with national financial interests.

Siderov had spent the press conference explaining to journalists that he had no knowledge of the investigation into his involvement with the case, and claimed that he was never called to face court as a defendant. Then at the end of the conference an officer from the Bulgarian National Investigation Services appeared in front of Siderov to personally hand him the summons. Visibly annoyed to say the least, Siderov began a verbal argument with the officer. What ensued was described as a "short but very noisy brawl," though finally Siderov signed the summons and promised to appear in court.