Incident at Protest organised by Macedonian expatriates in Australia

Waving flags with the Vergina Sun and chanting “Never north, only Macedonia”, tens of expatriates from Macedonia held a protest outside the Macedonian Consulate in Melbourne, where they took down the Macedonian flag from the pole and put the one with the Vergina Sun. Afterwards, they were singing the Macedonian anthem and set fires to the flags of Greece, Bulgaria and Albania. In addition, they used offensive words against Albanians. Part of them even burned down cardboard cutouts of PM Zoran Zaev and Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska. SDSM said this was yet another in the cases of violence sown and encouraged by VMRO-DPMNE. “In addition to the fact that there was no party delegation to lay flowers at the tombs of former Presidents Kiro Gligorov and Boris Trajkovski, VMRO-DPMNE sows hatred and encourages violence,” the ruling party said, describing Hristijan Mickoski’s party and its “threatening rhetoric” as the direct encouragers of such acts. The Government, too, condemned the case. In response to SDSM’s comments, VMRO-DPMNE said that Gligorov and Trajkovski had pledged for an independent and sovereign Republic of Macedonia and respected the citizens’ word expressed in the 1991 referendum, whereas the government led by Zoran Zaev had changed the constitutional name of the country.