Egg-throwing Kosovo lawmakers scramble PM’s speech

Bodyguards cover with umbrella Kosovo’s Prime Minister Isa Mustafa escorting him away from the stand as opposition members throw eggs while he was addressing Kosovo’s parliament in capital Pristina on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs towards Kosovo’s Prime Minister while he was addressing parliament on the latest agreement reached between Pristina and Belgrade in Brussels on August 25, 2015. AP Photo

PRISTINA, Kosovo—Kosovo opposition lawmakers on Tuesday pelted the prime minister with eggs, preventing him from addressing parliament over the ongoing dialogue with Serbia.

Isa Mustafa could not even begun speaking when opposition deputies started hurling eggs from their benches, prompting his bodyguards to rush to open umbrellas in a bid to protect him.

An egg struck the front lapel of Mustafa’s suit as he left the podium.

The session was cancelled temporarily by the parliamentary speaker.

Major opposition parties are against the EU-brokered dialogue with Serbia, claiming  it can only harm Kosovo’s independence declared unilaterally in 2008 by the ethnic Albanian majority.

Fiercly rejecting the move, Serbia still considers the breakaway territory as its southern province.

The dialogue between former foes that fought a 1998 to 1999 war aims at normalization of relations between the two sides.