[lbo-talk] Bulgarian presidential elections - 21% vote for racist, holocaust-denying lunatic

[Julian Gollop]

Many people will be relieved that incumbent president, Georgi Purvanov, won
an overwhelming 78.7% of the vote in Bulgaria's presidential elections on
Sunday. When asked to explain his victory Purvanov said 'we won because we
were better'. This basically translates to: 'although I was an informant for
the communist secret police, at least I am not a raving, neo-nazi lunatic.'
Volen Siderov, the candidate of the ultra-nationalist 'Attack' coalition,
was actually be pretty pleased with the result. Many commentators had
written of 'Attack' after their parliamentary representation fell apart
through splits and scandals, after their surprising 9% support in last
year's general election. Now it seems that Attack is actually increasing its
support - at least among the active electorate. It has to be noted that the
turnout for the presidential elections was only 40%, reflecting Bulgarians
severe disenchantment with the whole political system. Siderov is very adept
at exploiting Bulgarians' disgust with corruption in every walk of public
life, and Purvanov wisely refused to debate with Siderov during the election
campaign. 'It was the mafia, who re-appointed Georgi Parvanov,' Pavel
Shopov, Attack's vice-presidential candidate claimed at the final press
conference. 'This is a sad and ill-boding fact for Bulgaria,' he added,
calling the elections 'forged' and 'pure manipulation.'
He claimed that they were the real and moral winner in the elections.
'Bulgaria's political scene will never be the same after these elections.'

Commentators have often compared Siderov to Le Pen, but I think even Le Pen
would be slightly embarrassed to be associated with such an extreme
conspiracy theorist. I have had the misfortune to read some of Siderov's
book, 'The Boomerang of Evil'. He basically subscribes to the whole opus of
Jewish conspiracy theories - 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion', 'Red
Symphony' and so on. In a nutshell,  freemasonry, Bolshevism and Nazism were
creations of a conspiracy of Jewish banking elites who are trying to
establish world government. Trotsky was apparently a 33rd degree mason, and
the chosen ruler for Russia until Stalin thwarted the Jews plans. He
describes '66 million' Russians killed during WW2 as a holocaust perpetrated
by the Jewish elite. I have never come across such a crude amd plain nutty
anti-semitic diatribe before. Scary stuff indeed.

Julian G.