Up to 2,000 protesters clashed with Macedonian police on Tuesday 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, a Reuters witness said.
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.
Zaev has in the last few months published wire-taps of voices purported to include those of Gruevski and senior officials discussing how to employ members of the ruling rightist VMRO-DPMNE party in state jobs, pick judges and massage elections.
Gruevski has denied the allegations and dismissed the wire-taps as a plot by foreign spies..
A state prosecutor indicted Zaev on Thursday for “violence against representatives of the highest state bodies.
