The Burgas District Court convicted Bulgaria’s Deputy Premier Valeri Simeonov of anti-Roma hate speech. The lawsuit against Simeonov was initiated after his statement from the National Assembly rostrum in December 2014 when he said that “the Roma people have turned into impudent, presumptious and ferocious anthropoids who are demanding the right to payments without working, sickness benefits without being ill, child benefits for children who play with pigs in the streets and maternity allowances for women with instincts of street dogs”. The complaint against Valeri Simeonov who heads the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues, was lodged by journalists of Roma origin.