These protests were the result of corruption allegations, which were the main cause of the Republic of Macedonia's political crisis, against VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski and his coalition partners.

[8] They were further accused of preventing the formation of a new government, following the parliamentary election in 2016, in order to avoid losing power and facing prosecution for corruption.

[8] The conflict also had ethnic undertones, as the reason no coalition government had been formed was due to the demand for the Albanian language to be the second official language in the Republic of Macedonia, and due to attempts by opposition leader Zoran Zaev to form a coalition government with Albanian ethnic parties.

Gruevski called for protests on 26 February with the words "all those who plan to sit at home and to watch TV believing that someone else will do their job to protect their country, are mistaken”, against the formation of a new coalition government.

The protests began on 27 February, organized by the Macedonian nationalist association For a United Macedonia (claimed to be a proxy of VMRO-DPMNE), under the same slogan.

[11] At the same time, around 20+ organizations named as "patriotic associations" were founded, which announced that they would use all kinds of violent and non-violent means to prevent "attempts to destroy the Republic of Macedonia".

In a press conference, Zoran Zaev described the events as “attempted murder,” done with the consent of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the country’s former President Gjorge Ivanov.

Minister of Interior Agim Nuhiu condemned the attack on the Parliament and stated that the "persons in authority of the Ministry who are responsible for yesterday's events will be held accountable".

A spokesman for the human rights organization Council of Europe said the incident was “alarming”, while Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed concern over the “really dramatic” situation.

[24] On 3 May, Interior Minister Nuhiu requested for the dismissal of Mitko Čavkov from the position of Director of the Bureau of Public Security.

[36] In November 2017 a protest was led by Gruevski against the arrest of people who were suspected of involvement in the attack, including his own MPs, Mitko Čavkov, and other former police employees.

[38] A protest on 25 April 2021 was organized by Macedonian diaspora organizations and the families of the convicted people in front of the government and parliament building under the slogan "Democracy in Macedonia and freedom for the defenders of the constitution", demanding the release of people convicted for the attack, which was supported by VMRO-DPMNE and other smaller right-wing parties.

[39][40] High-ranking members and the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, were also present in the protest, who wrote on social media: "We support and demand the release of the defenders of the constitution, they are not and cannot be terrorists.