Government of Macedonia(led by VMRO-DPMNE) United opposition and NGOs, including: Gjorge Ivanov (President of Republic of Macedonia) Nikola Gruevski (former Prime Minister and leader of VMRO-DPMNE) Emil Dimitriev (Interim Prime Minister) Zoran Zaev (President of SDSM and opposition leader) Radmila Šekerinska (Deputy leader of SDSM) Oliver Spasovski (Minister of Interior) Andrej Žernovski (Mayor of municipality of Centar) Stevo Pendarovski (former candidate for President of Macedonia) Tito Petkovski (Leader of NSDP) Zdravko Saveski 'And others...' In April 2016, protests began in the Republic of Macedonia against the incumbent President Gjorge Ivanov and the government led by the interim Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev from the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party.

Referred to by some as the Colorful Revolution[2][3] (Macedonian: Шарена револуција), the protests started after the controversial decision by President Gjorge Ivanov to stop the investigation of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and dozens of politicians who were allegedly involved in a wiretapping scandal.

[4][5] The demonstrations were organized by "Protestiram" (I protest) and supported by a coalition led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia and other opposition parties, in addition to the newly formed Levica (The Left)[6][7] demanding that the government resign and be replaced by a transitional government and that the parliamentary elections planned for 5 June 2016 be cancelled, on the grounds that the conditions for free and transparent elections were not in place.

[8] The government and its supporters, who had organized pro-government rallies, maintained that the elections on June 5 were the only solution to the political crisis, with some observers blaming the opposition for creating a "Ukraine scenario" in Macedonia.

[9][10] Initially taking place in Skopje, the capital, both anti- and pro-government protests also occurred in other cities in the country, including Bitola, Kicevo, Kočani, Veles, Strumica, Prilep, Kumanovo and Tetovo.

[5] Many people protested against alleged government corruption, with estimates putting the number of demonstrators in the tens of thousands, demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister.

Crowds broke through a police cordon towards government buildings, throwing flares at President Ivanov's offices and burning portraits of him.

[24] On 18 April, it was reported that more than ten thousand people took part in demonstrations in Skopje, with protests also happening in other cities of Macedonia (including Bitola, Strumica and Veles).

[11] The protest on 19 April began in front of the special prosecutor's office, proceeded to parliament and was stopped by police before reaching the EU mission.

On the eighth day, journalists began referring to the protests as „colorful revolution“ - with Kristina Ozimec's article for Deutsche Welle being the first to use the term.

[38] Also on that day, mass pro-government demonstrations organized by the GDOM occurred in Bitola, Stip, Veles, Delčevo, Gevgelija, Strumica, Kumanovo, Tetovo and Radoviš, in support of the June 5 elections.

A spokesperson for the GDOM told the media that they needed to prevent destructive scenarios and allow the people to make their decision by voting in the scheduled elections.

[43] On 9 May, thousands of demonstrators in Skopje with Macedonian and EU flags, songs and resistance symbols protested in front of the parliament and government buildings.

"[65] When the EU offered to host negotiations in Vienna, Zaev stated that he would only be willing to do so if "Ivanov withdraws all the pardons he granted, and ... parliament re-convenes and revokes the decision to call elections on June 5th, because there are no conditions for it.

"[28] In late April, police placed five demonstrators under house arrest, among them Zdravko Saveski and Vladimir Kunovski, members of presidium of "Levica" (the left), for vandalizing the presidential offices.