07 May, 2017
Footage from the scene showed chairs being thrown as fistfights broke out in the parliamentary press room, while Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats (SDSM), had blood running down his face and shirt.
They grabbed Radmila Sekerinska, an SDSM deputy, by the hair and yanked her to the ground.
An interior ministry statement on Friday said 102 people had been treated at city hospitals, including MPs and police officers. Eventually, police used stun grenades to evacuate the building and free legislators and journalists trapped inside. The country's foreign ministry said it is monitoring "the escalation of the situation in Macedonia with great concern".
About a quarter of the two-million people in the country - a former Yugoslav republic that aspires to join both North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union - are ethnic Albanians.
Among the attacked was the leader of SDSM Zoran Zaev, who had visible physical injuries.
The country's parliament - known as the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia - has been deadlocked for three weeks over the election of a new speaker.
Peter Szijjarto says that far-away foreign countries, which he didn't name, decided the country's voting timetable.
The protest started after an ethnic Albanian, Taalat Xhaferi, was elected as the speaker, a BBC report read.
Biljana Vankovska, a geopolitical analyst and Skopje University professor of security and peace studies, said she doesn't believe the West and Russian Federation would be deeply involved in the country's politics.
The party official spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
"Violence has NO place in Parliament".
Also late on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn strongly condemned the violence and called for calm and restraint.
The secretary general of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, tweeted that he was "shocked" by the "attacks".
Hungary's position on Macedonia seems to follow the Russian view, as Moscow says the European Union and the US are to blame for the turmoil. "These Western forces are responsible for the violence, which affects their own allies and opponents, while Macedonia's population, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Macedonian state are being held hostage to these provocative geopolitical projects", Zheleznyak emphasized. Coalition talks broke down over ethnic Albanian demands that Albanian be recognized as an official second language.
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. Following Yugoslavia's breakup in the early 1990s, the country was overcome with ethnic tension and violence.
Serb nationalists in Bosnia have taken steps to split from the country by snubbing central institutions.
"Police actions were badly organised, especially compared to last year's protests, policemen were even recorded to greet the protesters and sing nationalistic songs with them", Andreja Stojkovski, president and senior researcher at the Skopje-based EUROTHINK - Centre for European Strategies, told SeeNews in a phone call referring to videos posted on the internet.
"The coup attempt in Montenegro is an apparent example of this".
"People need to calm down", he said.
