Macedonian Protesters Carry Banner Calling for Politicians to be Hanged

Nationalist protesters carried a banner on May 8 through the streets of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, calling for several of the country’s politicians to be hanged, RFE reported. Similar protests have occurred almost daily since April 27.The protesters carried Macedonian flags and a few people held signs demanding that Hungarian-American financier George Soros stay out of the country’s politics, a rallying cry of nationalist movements in several eastern European countries.Ethnic tensions have arisen since a violent outburst at Macedonia’s parliament on April 27, the day Talat Xhaferi, the newly elected speaker, took office, Balkan Insider reported. It was the first time an ethnic Albanian had taken one of the three top political posts in the country.Additional nationalist emotions have been inflamed by proposals to increase the use and acceptance of the Albanian language, in a country where ethnic Albanians form more than a quarter of the population.