Scores of protesters, many wearing masks, broke through a police cordon and entered Macedonia's parliament late Thursday, attacking lawmakers to protest the election of a new speaker despite a months-long deadlock in talks to form a new government. The country is currently without a formal government as electoral deadlock has resulted in a protracted conflict between the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE and the country’s President Gjorge Ivanov on one side versus Zoran Zaev’s Social Democrats and ethnic Albanian parties on the other. Scores of people were reportedly injured as demonstrators fought their way through a police cordon and stormed the Macedonian Parliament amid ethnic tensions in the small country. In the December 11 2016 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Macedonia, Gruevski’s party narrowly won the largest share of votes, but failed to form a coalition with Albanian minority parties so they could continue to govern

Zaev’s SDSM has negotiated a coalition with three Albanian parties and has created a new majority in the parliament of 69 deputies out of 120. As a condition of participation, the Albanian parties have been insisting on a seven-point platform that includes making Albanian an official language in Macedonia. However, President Ivanov, a close ally of Gruevski, has refused to give Zaev a mandate to seek to form a government, accusing the new coalition of intending to break up Macedonia. READ MORE: State Dept sued over funding Soros operations in Macedonia

The clashes on Thursday came after the coalition elected Talat Xhaferi, a former defense minister from the ethnic Albanian DUI party, as president of the parliament. European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn condemned Thursday's violence, saying in a tweet that 'Violence has NO place in Parliament.
The Macedonian Parliament is stormed by protesters opposing the election of Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian, as Speaker of the Assembly.