“In a rare moment of legal good fortune, the Court of Appeal today ruled that Gypsies, Roma and Travellers have an “enshrined freedom” to move from one place to another, and that an injunction to prevent camping on public land would breach the rights of the communities it targeted.”

Krasimir Karakachanov, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister for public order is the head of the right-wing Bulgarian National Movement. Earlier this year, he declared: “The truth is that we need to undertake a complete programme for a solution to the Gypsy problem.”

He has developed a “concept for the integration of the unsocialised Gypsy (Roma) ethnicity”, which defines Roma as the Nazis did, as “asocial gypsies” and “non-native Europeans”.

He wants to set up compulsory “labour education schools” for Roma children, limit the number of children born to Roma women and send some community members on work programmes. His party has also called for “reservations” for Roma people, suggesting, grotesquely, that they could become tourist attractions. Karakachanov’s programme could soon become law.