Nationalist celebrations of the Albanian Independence Day were taking place across Macedonia all day today. In Skopje this afternoon, Albanians burnt and trampled Macedonian flags with their cars.

All cities with sizable Albanian communities were draped with red-black flags, and in many public schools classes were canceled to make way for celebrations. Given that, for a first time in decades, the Albanian political scene in Macedonia is evenly divided between two blocks, both rivals – DUI and the VLEN coalition – were trying to out-do each other with celebrating the holiday.