<br /> <p>Crowds of nationalist protesters stormed Macedonia’s parliament building on April after the election of an ethnic Albanian, Talat Xhaferi, as speaker. Leaders of opposition parties were reportedly injured.</p><p>Among those reported injured was Zijadin Sela, leader of the Albanian Alliance, and Social Democratic leader Zoran Zaev</a>, seen with blood on his face in live televised broadcasts. Their two parties had formed a coalition pact with another ethnic Albanian party, backing Xhaferi for the post. Zaev is seen in the first video wearing a light blue shirt.</p><p>Radmila Sekerinska, deputy leader of the Social Democrats, was also attacked. She is the blonde woman seen in the first video having her hair yanked.</p><p>The position of speaker had been left unfilled for weeks as parliamentary parties, none of which had been able to form a government since elections in December, remained deadlocked in debates.</p><p>The vote was condemned by the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, which received the most votes in December’s elections, but not enough to form a government. Zaev’s Social Democratic Union of Macedonia party attempted to form a coalition government, securing 69 of the 120 parliamentary seats with another another ethnic Albanian party, but was refused a mandate by President Gjorge Ivanov, a member of VMRO-DPMNE.</p><p>Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of the population of Macedonia. However, tensions remain following a 2001 insurgency led by the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group.</p><br />
