A far-right presidential candidate in Bulgaria had his legal immunity waived after he was suspected of attacking an LGBT+ community centre in Sofia.
Bulgaria’s prosecutor general made the request to waive Boyan Rasate’s immunity after accusing him of being part of a group that ransacked the LGBT+ centre.
Rasate is a self-proclaimed national socialist who has referred to Hristo Lukov, a pro-Nazi Bulgarian World War II general, as a hero.
The Rainbow Hub, an LGBT+ centre in Sofia, was ransacked and one of their workers was punched in the face in the attack that occurred during a trans community event, said The Bilitis Foundation, an LGBT+ rights organisation based at the hub.
They added on Twitter the attack came 10 days after filing a petition of more than 8,000 signatures demanding that anti-LGBTI hate crimes be recognised as such. The Rainbow Hub is a home for multiple organisations that promote the protection of LGBT+ rights.
Eleven embassies, including several European ones, had condemned the October 30 attack against the Rainbow Hub, stating they expressed “solidarity with our friends and partners in the face of this senseless attack”.
Bulgaria’s prosecutor general said in a statement that B.S. (Rasate’s official initials) was “a perpetrator” that “committed indecent acts, grossly violating public order and expressing manifest disrespect for society”.
They said he had entered an office of a foundation and “started shouting, knocking down furniture and spraying the walls.”
While the prosecutor general did not name the foundation nor the candidate’s full name, he indicated that it was on the same street as the foundation that reported the incident. Euronews has reached out to the prosecutor but did not hear back by the time of publication.
The Central Election Commission confirmed to Euronews that they had waived Rasate’s immunity, opening up the far-right presidential candidate to prosecution ahead of the country’s November 14 elections.
A spokesperson said it was not the first time that a prosecutor had asked the commission to waive immunity for a candidate.
Rasate responded in a post on Facebook that “all they had to do was ask for it and I would have waived (the immunity) myself”.
He is one of a number of far-right nationalist politicians running in the country’s upcoming elections.
Rasate accused the US ambassador in Bulgaria, Herro Mustafa, of being behind the effort by prosecutors, referring to the statement from 11 embassies and referred to the LGBT community as “paedophiles”.
The project coordinator at Bilitis, Gloriya Filipova, who says she was punched in the face during the attack, wrote on social media: “All I ever aimed for was creating safer spaces for our community. Yesterday my biggest fear came true: our community centre was destroyed and I got punched in the face. I’m sure that we have enough love to heal, but this really hurts. It is time for (Bulgaria’s) institutions to act,” Filipova tweeted.
