Up to 2,000 protesters clashed with Macedonian police outside the government building in Skopje as they called for the resignation of the prime minister who is embroiled in a long-running wire-tapping scandal.
The demonstrators set rubbish containers on fire and threw stones at police who were guarding the building, during a rally calling for the resignation of Nikola Gruevski and his cabinet.
The interior ministry said at least 10 policemen were injured during and after the two-hour rally. Police in riot gear dispersed the crowd after the rally.
Mr Gruevski, a Conservative in power for nine years, has been involved in a conflict with Social Democrat opposition leader Zoran Zaev that threatens Macedonia's fragile democracy.
Mr Zaev has in the last few months published wire-taps of voices purported to include those of Mr Gruevski and senior officials discussing how to employ members of the ruling rightist VMRO-DPMNE party in state jobs, pick judges and massage elections.
Mr Gruevski has denied the allegations and dismissed the wire-taps as a plot by foreign spies.
A state prosecutor indicted Mr Zaev last week for "violence against representatives of the highest state bodies".
Mr Zaev has published a new set of audio files and accused Mr Gruevski and his interior minister of attempting to cover up the death of a 22-year-old man, who was beaten to death by a police officer during a post-election celebration in 2011.
The officer was later sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder.
The ministry denied the accusation against Mr Gruevski and his minister and accused Mr Zaev of exploiting a tragic death for political gain.
The protesters gathered outside the government building hours after Mr Zaev's news conference.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article