5 Classic Parliamentary Brawls

Ukrainian Parliament Resorts to Smoke Bombs, Eggs

Thought U.S. bipartisanship was at an all-time low? Try Ukraine, whose Parliament erupted into violence on Tuesday while voting on a measure to extend the lease of a Russian naval base. Eggs were thrown, but the leadership came prepared, and went about their business under cover of umbrella.

South Korean National Assembly Brawls Over Media Bill

Who could have guessed that South Korea, of all countries, would have the rootin’-est, tootin’-est deliberative body? A brawl seems to break out in the National Assembly every nine months or so; this video, from July 2009, shows the knock-down drag-out over a new media law that opponents claimed would lead to sympathetic coverage of the president.

Indian Assembly Uses Microphones as Weapons

It’s inevitable that the political process will occasionally get messy when you’re working in the world’s largest democracy, India. And messy it got in 1997, when the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party grabbed microphones and chairs took on left-wing legislators over a dispute about which languages could be used to swear governmental oaths.

Bolivian Congress Brawls Over Judgeships

South America isn’t exempt from its own parliamentary punch-ups: In 2007, the Bolivian congress came to blows when one faction tried to put four judges on trial for corruption. The other side, obviously, disagreed. Vehemently.

Fistfight on Alabama Senate Floor

The most famous political brawl in American history must be South Carolina Democrat Preston Brooks’ savage caning of Massachusetts Republican Charles Sumner—but that was in 1856. To find more recent fisticuffs you’ll have to turn to the floor of the Alabama Senate, where a small fight broke out after one legislator called another a “son of a bitch.”

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