A line in a popular TV detective show Midsomer Murders says: "this is the country, and in the country anything goes". Well I can only paraphrase it as "this is Bulgaria, and in Bulgaria anything goes". How else can you explain the latest media stunt of the ultra-nationalist Ataka party? Just recently the party said it will publish a top 100 list with names of the most corrupt Bulgarian politicians.

Ataka's leader Volen Siderov said that already they had already compiled a list of the top 10 most corrupt. Surprisingly, the list featured only names from the three ruling parties.

So what's going on in Bulgaria when it's not the police who compile lists with corrupt politicians but politicians themselves? It all looks like a classroom full of children and some of the children (Ataka) make a list with the badly behaved children (the ruling coalition) and give it to the teacher (media and public).

I can't wait to see what Ataka's criteria for compiling the list will be. Are they going to use tax declarations, will they summon and question people who have suffered from the alleged corrupt politicians, or only use media publications as Siderov hinted? Because if Siderov simply repeats what the yellow press has been saying about a number of public officials citing "unofficial sources", that will simply mean that the yellow press has found its political representation in Ataka's face.

I'm not sure who will be most pleased about that, Ataka or the yellow press. Siderov, a former journalist himself, knows very well how things work when you make a statement without proof. He's no fool and knows that as an MP he enjoys an immunity from prosecution, something which everyone on his top 10 list will ask about once the list is published.

And here comes the big irony. Siderov has had his MP immunity removed once before, in relation to an investigation about him forcing a fellow MP from Ataka to give false testimonies. This investigation is currently continuing and Ataka has done everything possible to turn it into a circus by blocking courtrooms and staging loud protests in front of the court building.

If this isn't an example of how a political party makes a joke of the country's judiciary I don't know what is.

I just wonder how Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev feels about Ataka's list and whether he feels that Ataka is taking over his job. Central Europe had a case like this in the 1930s and we all know what happened then.

It's hardly a good message to send to the Bulgarian people that one political party is willing to make unverifiable corruption claims against other parties.

Who knows, once he's done with the top 100 corrupt politicians, Siderov might start work on the top 100 corrupt state administration officials, then on the top 100 traffic police officials, the top 100 municipal officials, etc.

I just wonder, if someone were to make a list of the most non-corrupt politicians, where would Siderov be on it? We can only wonder what the future holds, but, as the good detective might say, this is Bulgaria and in Bulgaria anything goes.