2017 storming of Macedonian Parliament


Storming of the Macedonian Parliament, also known as Bloody Thursday occurred on 27 April 2017, when about 200 Macedonian nationalists stormed the Macedonian Parliament in reaction to the election of Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian, as speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. The violence was condemned by the European Union and NATO, who also greeted the election of Xhaferi as new parliament speaker.

Background

In the years prior to the event, the Republic of Macedonia had been involved in political turmoil, culminating in mass anti-government protests in 2015 and 2016. These protests were the result of corruption allegations, which are the main cause of the Republic of Macedonia's political crisis, against VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski and his coalition partners. They were further accused of preventing a new government forming, following the parliamentary election in 2016, in order to prevent losing power and facing prosecution for corruption. There had been daily protests across the country by supporters of the VMRO-DPMNE party.
The conflict also had ethnic undertones, as the reason no coalition government had been formed was due to the demand for the Albanian language to be the second official language in Government of the Republic of Macedonia, and due to attempts by opposition leader Zoran Zaev to form a coalition government with Albanian ethnic parties. The Republic of Macedonia had seen mass ethnic violence in the years prior, particularly in 2001 and 2012.

Incident

Around 200 protestors stormed the parliament building after Xhaferi was elected speaker. Many were masked and they threw chairs and punches at journalists and MPs, injuring SDSM leader Zoran Zaev. Radmila Šekerinska, deputy head of the SDSM, required stitches after being dragged by her hair. Police had to deploy stun grenades to break up the mob.