Zoran Zaev, opposition leader in Macedonia, expected to run the next
government, refused the appeal of President Ivanov to hold an urgent
meeting between parties this Friday, a few hours after nationalistic
protesters, supporters of Nikola Gruevski’s party, broke in the
Parliament’s building, beating opposition’s lawmakers.
An official of the LSDM told Associated Press anonymously that Zaev would not go to the meeting.
Police said 102 people were injured during the violence that erupted outside the Parliament, a few minutes after the Parliament appointed the first Albanian Speaker ever in its history, Talat Xhaferri. Zaev was among the victims, same as Albanian Ziadin Sela and 22 police officers.
Zaev described the attack against him as a murder attempt, and accused former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and President Gjorgje Ivanov of provoking violence, and that they were both prepared to sacrifice the country’s interest for their own.
Macedonia, which won its independence after the breakup of Yugoslavia, is undergoing a deep political crisis for the past two years.
The EU and USA condemned the violence of this Thursday, while they recognized Xhaferi as the new Speaker of Macedonia’s Parliament. Zaev said he expects Xhaferi to ask Ivanov the mandate for forming the new government of LSDM within the next few days.
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