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. The violence, which was condemned by the European Union and the United States, follows two years of political crisis in the country of about two million people.
An early election in December was supposed to end the turmoil, but its inconclusive result only deepened the uncertainty and has led to nightly protests by nationalist demonstrators, who support the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party of former premier Nikola Gruevski. They oppose a proposed coalition between the SDSM and ethnic Albanian parties, which they perceive as a threat to national unity.