Macedonian Social Democratic leader injured in fight inside parliament - witnesses

The leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) Zoran Zaev talks to media after casting his vote during elections in Strumica, Macedonia, December 11, 2016. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonian Social Democratic leader Zoran Zaev was lightly injured in a fistfight inside parliament on Thursday after nationalists stormed into the chamber in protest at the election of an ethnic Albanian as speaker, witnesses said. Live television footage showed Zaev with blood trickling from the left side of his forehead, not long after he announced that the governing coalition led by his party had elected Talat Xhaferi as parliament speaker. Macedonia went to the brink of civil war during an insurgency by minority Albanians in 2001 before international mediation defused the situation, but ethnic tensions linger. (Reporting by Kole Casule and Benet Koleka; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Mark Heinrich)