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More than 100 injured after protestors storm Macedonia’s parliament

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    • Protesters – some of them wearing masks – entered Macedonia’s parliament on April 27 following the election of Talat Xhaferi as speaker of the assembly. The interior ministry said in an April 28 statement that 102 people were treated at city hospitals, including MPs and police officers. Interior minister Agim Nuhiu said 10 MPs were among the injured. Earlier reports said four MPs were injured, among them Zoran Zaev, leader of the social democratic SDSM party. Xhaferi is the first ethnic Albanian parliamentary speaker in Macedonia since its independence in 1991. He was elected by 67 MPs in the 120-seat parliament, and is a member of the BDI party. The nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party challenged Xhaferi’s election. They said the vote was not carried out electronically, as is usual, because the parliamentary session had formally ended, according to a Reuters news agency report. President Gjorge Ivanov called for calm and said he would convene a meeting with the political party leaders on Friday. Outside parliament, police dispersed a large protest, reportedly using flash-bang grenades and riot smoke. Some protesters were reported to have set up tents. There have been daily street protests in Skopje since a coalition was agreed between SDSM and other parties representing ethnic Albanians, who make up around a third of the country’s population. President Ivanov has refused to give SDSM leader Zaev a mandate to form a new government. Balkan Insight reports that VMRO-DPMNE has been filibustering parliament debates for a month to prevent the election of a speaker. Some are accusing the nationalist VRMO-DPMNE party of being behind the protest but Grasswire has not confirmed this. VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski was Macedonia’s prime minister for a decade, but the party was ousted in elections in December 2016.

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    Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn on today’s developments in Skopje: We condemn in the strongest terms today’s ongoing attacks on the Members of the Parliament in Skopje. The acts of violence in the Parliament are wholly unacceptable and we call for calm and restraint. The Interior Ministry and the police must ensure the security of the Parliament and its members Democracy must run its course. We take positive note of the election of Talat Xhaferi as a Speaker of the Parliament, as reported. The European Union is convinced that political dialogue in the institutions is the only way forward and we urge all political actors to honour the Constitution of the country and act in the spirit of democratic principles, decency and common sense. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a candidate country and the European Union is ready to work with the Parliament on the necessary reforms to move the country forward on its European path.
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