Mass Protests in Skopje as EU Envoy Tries to Break Deadlock

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in FYROM's (Macedonia) capital, Skopje, Tuesday to protest a visit by a European Union envoy who is trying to break the political deadlock that has left the country without a government for three months.

Waving red-and-yellow national flags, the protesters chanted "Macedonia! Macedonia!" - as EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn held talks with political leaders.

Protest organizers said they were holding rallies at 42 sites around the country, and unfurled giant banners along the route taken by Hahn from the airport to the capital.

Macedonia's two largest parties do not have enough lawmakers to form a government after a general election in December.

They would need to form a coalition with one party from the country's ethnic Albanian minority, which is demanding that Albanian be made the country's second...