At yesterday's protest demanding the right to sit the bar exam in Albanian, what started as a peaceful gathering of Albanian students in front of the Ministry of Justice ended in physical incidents, brawls and three detained. The footage is spreading on social media - blows, clothes being grabbed, and the moment the police hauled away the participants in the incident.

The protest began at Skenderbeg Square and marched through central Skopje to the Ministry of Justice. Banners with messages like "Don't touch our futures" and condemnations of the gap between law and practice. The students were clear: they would not stop until their demand to sit the bar exam in their mother tongue was met.

The response from the governing VLEN party was predictably diplomatic: co-presidents met with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, the government pledged to seek "solutions in line with the Constitution" through "a joint, wise and dignified approach." Plain-language translation: there will be waiting, there will be negotiating, and maybe a solution will appear before the next local elections.

Minister Daut Beciri went further - he said the bar exam and all professional exams would soon be available in Albanian as well. The statement sounds fine. The question is - when? "Soon" is the most elastic word in Macedonian politics. It can mean a month. It can mean four years.

For Macedonian citizens, regardless of language, the issue is broader. Sitting professional exams in Albanian already exists in some sectors (medicine, education). Why does the judiciary in particular resist for so long? Is it that courts rely on Albanian lawyers who took their exams in Macedonian to translate for clients? That's discrimination dressed up as a "technical detail."

And the brawl at the protest? It's a sign that even peaceful protests don't stay peaceful anymore. And that's a serious signal about how the country's different communities feel - unheard, and increasingly out of patience.