The Latest: Albania voices concern over Macedonia situation
The violent protest inside Macedonia’s parliament building has caused concern in neighboring Albania. The country’s foreign ministry says it is monitoring “the escalation of the situation in Macedonia with great concern.”
In a statement issued Thursday, the ministry said: “Such scenes of violence against the elected representatives of the Macedonian people are unacceptable.”
One-fourth of Macedonia’s population is ethnic Albanian, and coalition talks to form a new government broke down over ethnic Albanian demands that Albanian be recognized as an official second language.
Albania’s government called on “political leaders to show restraint and avoid rhetoric that could further escalate the tense situation.”
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9:07 p.m.
A Macedonian opposition leader was among the lawmakers attacked when protesters stormed the country’s parliament building.
Photographs broadcast on local television showed blood on Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev’s face.
A spokesman for an ethnic Albanian party, Artan Grubi of the Democratic Union for Integration party, says Zaev and at least three other lawmakers were injured during the attack on Thursday night.
He says the violence marks “a sad day for Macedonia.”
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8:43 p.m.
A senior European Union official has condemned the violent protests inside Macedonia’s parliament.
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said in a tweet on Thursday that “Violence has NO place in Parliament. Democracy must run its course.”
Sweden’s ambassador to Macedonia, Mats Staffansson, speaking on behalf of other European diplomats, reminded the country’s politicians of the need for dialogue and said “it is the responsibility of the police of this country to make sure that this kind of violence does not happen.”
Their remarks came after scores of protesters in the capital broke through a police cordon and rushed into parliament to protest the election of a new speaker despite a months-long deadlock in talks to form a new government.
The Associated Press/ The Washington Post
