Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Mob storms Macedonian parliament

  • Macedonian parliament after a paint attack in 2016 (Photo: John Crane)

Masked and bare-chested men stormed Macedonia’s parliament on Thursday (27 April), amid growing EU and US concerns about Balkan stability.

The men attacked Zoran Zaev, the leader of the SDSM opposition party, who was later shown on TV with a bloody gash on his head.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

They grabbed Radmila Sekerinska, an SDSM deputy, by the hair and yanked her to the ground.

They also injured three MPs from ethnic Albanian opposition parties, one of whom needed hospital treatment, and 22 police officers.

The mob of some 200 people occupied the plenary chamber until police reinforcements expelled them using flash grenades.

“There is total chaos,” a police spokesman told the Bloomberg news agency at the time.

“This is a sad day,” a spokesman for the ethnic Albanian DUI party said.

The incident was the latest escalation in a long political crisis pitting the country’s former leader, Nikola Gruevski, against Zaev and the ethnic Albanian minority.

Zaev’s SDSM and Albanian parties formed a ruling majority after recent elections.

But Gruevski and his ally Gjorge Ivanov, the Macedonian president, have refused to let them form a government despite EU and US pressure.

The attackers, which shouted nationalist and pro-Gruevski slogans, broke through police lines after Zaev’s coalition won a vote to appoint Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian MP, as parliament speaker.

Some eyewitnesses said the police acted suspiciously.

“The police let in the protesters and didn’t stop them when they started beating up the deputies”, Kalinka Gaber, an SDSM deputy, told Bloomberg.

“They are making no effort to prevent the occupation,” Andreja Stojkovski, the head of Eurothink, a think tank in Skopje, told the Financial Times newspaper.

The EU’s first reaction to the incident also highlighted police conduct.

“It is the responsibility of the police of this country to make sure that this kind of violence does not happen”, Mats Staffansson, Sweden’s ambassador to Macedonia, told press in Skopje on behalf of the EU at the time of the parliament siege.

“The interior ministry and the police must ensure the security of the parliament and its members”, the EU foreign service added in a subsequent statement.

Western officials also condemned the events on social media.

"Violence has NO place in Parliament. Democracy must run its course”, Johannes Hahn, the EU enlargement commissioner, said on Twitter.

Nato head Jens Stoltenberg called for “dialogue, not violence”.

The US embassy in Macedonia said on its Facebook page: “It is critical all parties respect democratic processes and the law, and refrain from violent actions”.

Macedonia’s neighbours, Albania and Greece, voiced alarm.

Russia had not yet issued a high-level statement as of Friday morning, but its foreign ministry recently said the crisis was due to an EU and US plot to create a “greater Albania”.

The Macedonian crisis began when Zaev leaked wire-taps on Gruevski, two years ago, that could see Gruevski go to jail for corruption if his party is ousted from office.

The situation comes amid wider tensions in the Balkan region, not long after it was torn apart by ethnic warfare in the 1990s.

Britain has accused Russia of trying to stage a coup in Montenegro last year to stop it from joining Nato.

Serb nationalists in Bosnia have taken steps to split from the country by snubbing central institutions.

Russian arms deliveries to Serbia have also prompted a backlash by Kosovo, with EU and US politicians calling for more attention to the Russia’s effort to extend influence in the area.

“The coup attempt in Montenegro is an apparent example of this. It was an attempt to bring down a government elected by the people”, US senator John McCain told Voice of America Radio on Thursday after visiting the Balkans.

Hahn said last week at a speech in Princeton University in the US: “If we were to get wobbly in our commitments in the Balkans, someone else [Russia] could wrestle in - and that someone is actually already trying”.

EU to Macedonia: 'Stop playing with fire'

The EU has once again urged Macedonia to let Albanian parties join a new government and to stop “playing with fire” on ethnic hate speech.

Macedonia PM resigns, as EU comes to town

Gruevski ends 10-year reign, for now, urging opposition to respect April election date. EU's Hahn to decide if country ready for a fair vote.

EU ushers Macedonia to come closer

The European commission has said it would restore full-throated support for Macedonia to start accession talks if it kept up reform.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us