Demonstrators break into assembly after election of speaker despite months-long deadlock in talks to form new government

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Around 200 demonstrators, many wearing masks, broke through a police cordon and entered Macedonia’s parliament, attacking MPs in protest at the election of a new speaker despite a months-long deadlock in talks to form a new government.



The protesters stormed parliament on Thursday night after the country’s opposition Social Democrat party and others representing Macedonia’s Albanian ethnic minority voted for a new speaker. Shouting and throwing chairs, the protesters attacked MPs, including the opposition leader, Zoran Zaev.



Television footage showed Zaev bleeding from the forehead and other Social Democrat MPs surrounded by protesters waving national flags, shouting “traitors” and refusing to allow them to leave. Broken glass littered the floor and traces of blood were seen in hallways.

Police later fired flash grenades in an attempt to disperse protesters outside the parliament and clear the way for the evacuation of politicians still in the building.

In a televised address, the country’s president, Gjorge Ivanov, called for calm and said he had summoned the leaders of the country’s main political parties for a meeting on Friday. Ivanov said the constitution had been been violated and appealed “for reasonable and responsible behaviour”.

Macedonia has been without a government since last December, when former prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s conservative party won elections, but without enough votes to form an administration.

Coalition talks broke down over ethnic Albanian demands that Albanian be recognised as an official second language in a country where a quarter of the population is ethnic Albanian.



Zaev has been seeking a mandate to form a government for months, after reaching an agreement with an ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, to form a coalition. However, Ivanov refused to hand him the mandate.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Opposition leader Zoran Zaev, centre, after being attacked. Photograph: EPA

The assembly of the republic of Macedonia, as the Balkan nation’s parliament is known, has been deadlocked for three weeks over the election of a new speaker. Zaev had suggested earlier on Thursday that one could be elected outside normal procedures, an idea immediately rejected by the conservative party as an attempted coup.



Zaev went ahead with the vote, and a majority in parliament elected Talat Xhaferi, a former defence minister and member of the Democratic Union for Integration.



Story of cities #31: Skopje plans for the future by fixating on its ancient past Read more

Police said about 10 officers were injured during the melee and reinforcements were sent to assist those inside the parliament building.



The protesters who stormed parliament were among a group of demonstrators who have been holding rallies nightly for the past two months in the streets of Skopje and other cities. Many are supporters of Gruevski.



EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called for “calm and restraint”

“The acts of violence in the Parliament are wholly unacceptable,” Mogherini said in a statement.

The European Union enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, condemned the violence, saying in a tweet: “Violence has NO place in parliament. Democracy must run its course.”



Sweden’s ambassador to Macedonia, Mats Staffansson, speaking on behalf of other European diplomats, reminded the country’s politicians of the need for dialogue and said: “It is the responsibility of the police of this country to make sure that this kind of violence does not happen.”