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100 people injured in violent protests at Macedonian parliament

Xinhua, April 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

Around 100 people sought medical assistance after protests at the Macedonian Parliament turned violent on Thursday, the Macedonian Interior Ministry said Friday.

Among the injured were over 70 civilians, 22 police officers and three members of parliament.

Protesters broke into the building on Thursday afternoon after Tallat Xhaferri from the DUI, an ethnic Albanian party, was elected parliament speaker.

Live pictures showed that some of the protesters cornered lawmakers who voted for Xhaferri and attacked them.

Among the attacked was Zoran Zaev, leader of the Social Democratic Union for Macedonia (SDSM), which is leading a coalition with three ethnic Albanian political parties.

"The security situation in the central area of Skopje, in and around the parliament building is normalized. There are no more protesters in the building itself," the Interior Ministry said in a statement early Friday morning.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov called for calm in an urgent address to the nation.

"In these moments of general concern I call you to remain calm and not to fall under fake provocations and manipulations," said Ivanov. "I call upon all institutions to behave responsibly respecting the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Macedonia."

He also called a meeting with major political leaders for Friday.

Nikola Gruevski, leader of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, blamed the SDSM for the incident.

"The greed to take over the ruling at any cost is a direct reason that caused this unwanted situation," Gruevski said at an urgent press conference early Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Gruevski condemned the violence and demanded punishment for the attackers.

In Macedonia's elections in December 2016, the VMRO-DPMNE secured 51 seats in the 120-seat parliament, two more than the SDSM. But the SDSM won the right to form a new government after it formed coalition with ethnic Albanian parties.

Protesters have been in the streets of Skopje for the past two months to oppose the formation of a coalition government between SDSM and ethnic Albanian parties.

About one-fourth of Macedonia's population are ethnic Albanians. Endi