SKOPJE: At least 47 police officers have been injured in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje during protests against the government’s concessions on ethnic rights as part of EU accession talks, according to mediaMakfax that cited the police.
Wednesday’s report said that two of the 47 officers were seriously injured in the Tuesday protests. Eleven protesters were arrested.
Nationalist opposition party VMRO-DPMNE had called for the protests, enraged because of concessions to Bulgaria amid the EU accession process.
EU member Bulgaria had blocked the start of accession talks with North Macedonia for more than two years, demanding that the population of about 3,500 Bulgarians living in North Macedonia be mentioned in its constitution, to guarantee their equal rights.
North Macedonian Prime Minister DimitarKovacevski had told EU President Charles Michel on Tuesday that his country can live with the concessions that Bulgaria has already formally accepted and now requires the backing of North Macedonia’s parliament.
Originally, Bulgaria had made far greater demands, touching on language issues and the way North Macedonia records its history.
However, the nationalist opposition considers even the watered-down concessions to be unacceptable. –Agencies
