Bugaria MPs Trade Puches over 'pro-US Stance' Claims

A fight has broken out in Bulgaria's Parliament following a bitter dispute between the two nationalist parties, government supporter Patriotic Front (PF) and opposition Ataka.

The fist fighting began on Thursday afternoon, after Dimitar Bayraktarov, from PF, accused Ataka's leader Volen Siderov of "defending the US" in an article dating back in the 1990s.

This was followed by an attack on Bayraktarov from various Ataka members, including Desislav Chukolov, who is in Siderov's "inner circle" within the parliamentary group.

Siderov is the founder and chairman of Ataka, a party with an explicitly Russophile position calling on Bulgaria not to side with the EU and NATO on a number of energy, defense and foreign-policy issues.

Prior to adopting his pro-Russian stance and spearheading the once popular party, Siderov was known as a vehement defender of Bulgaria's Western orientation.