As reported by CNN station N1, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani denounced the altercation that broke out between lawmakers from the opposition and the ruling party on Thursday in the legislature.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti was interrupted by opposition lawmakers during a live video feed of the Kosovan parliament, and water was thrown at him after some pushing and fighting between members of the opposition and the ruling Vetevendosje party.
Kurti was talking about calming down tensions in northern Kosovo, which had been the scene of deadly riots in May when ethnic Serbs objected to the appointment of ethnic Albanian mayors.
There was a scuffle among the MPs who came to Kurti’s defense and those who came to the other side.
Glass was also heard breaking and the President of the Kosovo Assembly, Gljauk Konjufca, was also heard calling the police in the video.
The live broadcast from this session was then interrupted.
Osmani said in a Facebook such violence had “no place.”
“Using physical violence as a tool to address political discontent, differences or disagreements is the greatest harm that can be done to institutions that were built with so much can sacrifice,” she wrote, adding that “violence has no place in the temple of democracy and cannot become a political tool.”
“We must reaffirm our commitment to democracy, different thinking, as well as mutual respect, based on rule and law-abiding,” she said.
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama also condemned the brawl.
“Imagine how the irreplaceable allies and friends of Kosovo and the Albanians feel, when they see how Albanians grabbed each other by the throat instead of fighting with ideas and words, not insults and fists,” he said and called the opposition to distance itself from what he said was shameful behavior.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after a war in which Kosovan Albanians attempted to break from what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made up of today’s Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia views Kosovo as a breakaway state and does not recognize its independence.
The bulk of Kosovo’s population is ethnically Albanian but in the restive north ethnic Serbs are the majority in some areas and have increasingly demanded greater autonomy.