Sowetan

Punch-up's in parliaments around the world

By Nashira Davids | Feb 10, 2017

For the third year in a row South African MPs have secured a prominent mention on a blog that monitors the top parliamentary brawls on the planet.

The blog posted footage of parliamentary security personnel ejecting vociferously rebellious Economic Freedom Fighters from Parliament on Thursday.
While the punching‚ swearing and name-calling will no doubt damage the country’s reputation‚ South Africa is not alone when it comes to chaotic scenes in parliament.
Take Kosovo‚ for example‚ where the prime minister was pelted with eggs. Rotten eggs rain down on parliamentarians along with smoke bombs and bare-fisted blows in the Ukraine. “It may look like chaos and anarchy but for some in Ukraine’s political circles‚ it is in fact democracy in action‚” according to one report aired on local television.
Here is just a sample of how politicians settle their differences in other parts of the world.
1. In Kosovo the prime minister was pelted with eggs in 2015:

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2. In 2010 Graciela Camano used force to shut her colleague up in the Argentinian parliament:

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3. . Also in the Ukraine in 2015 a fight erupted during a speech by Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk:
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4. In 2013 about 50 Taiwanese law-makers got into a nasty fight about capital gains tax:
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5. In 2013 Taiwanese MPs made some more headlines when they fought about a nuclear power plant. Things got so bad that one man wore a helmet for protection:
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6. In Kenya water was poured over the deputy speaker in 2014:
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7. Turkish parliamentarians in 2016 exchanged punches when a debate — on lifting immunity for members under investigation — turned ugly.

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- TMG Digital