Leader of ultra-nationalist Ataka, Volen Siderov, brought up the issue of the citizenship of Speaker of Parliament Georgi Pirinski, again.

Pirinski was born on September 10 1948 in New York City, as the son of an emigrant Communist functionary.
In 1996 the management of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) wanted to put Pirinski forward as a candidate for president. The Constitutional Court barred him from participating in the presidential elections because he failed the constitutional requirement that the president had to be a Bulgarian citizen by birth.
He was said to have renounced his US citizenship in 1974, but the judicial invalidity has been disputed.

On January 22, Siderov presented copies of inquiries he had made into the citizenship of Pirinski. The copies included letters to the President, to the Justice Ministry and to the director of the Archive Fund, mediapool.bg said. According to Siderov there was no document of Pirinski acquiring Bulgarian citizenship in the period between 1997 and 2006.

Pirinski replied on that the statements of Siderov did "not do credit to anyone," mediapool.bg said.

Asked whether he had a document proving his Bulgarian citizenship, Pirinski said he would "not comment at this very moment because this is a serious enough issue."

“I am telling you that what they claim has no legal grounds whatsoever,” Pirinski said.

Ataka said they would approach the prosecutor's office with a request to investigate whether Pirinski has submitted a false statement regarding his citizenship at the time that he ran for member of parliament. According to the Bulgarian constitution, members of the Bulgaria Parliament are required to have a Bulgarian citizenship. The Central Election Committee (CEC) would be requested to annul Pirinski's election, Ataka said, adding that the matter would be taken to the Constitutional Court.

Currently it is not known how Pirinski has settled his Bulgarian-citizenship issue.

Ataka has tried to raise the issue in 2006 as well, without success.