In anticipation of the large protest announced by VMRO-DPMNE for today shortly after noon, police officers were busy placing a makeshift barrier in front of the Government building.

The move is ironic given that it was the Zaev Government that ordered the already built, permanent cast iron fence to be sawed off and carted away. The fence was put in place after the first violent protests of Zaev’s Colored Revolution movement in 2015, when dozens of officers were injured while protesters tried to storm the building. Zaev insisted that the removal of the fence means that the Government is as one with the people and will always be open to the public.

But since then, whenever protests would be held, the Interior Ministry was forced to draw makeshift metal barriers around the building, while the pillars of the old fence stand behind the police cordon, with gaping holes in them.