Violent protests grip Albania
Protesters and police clashed in Albania’s capital on Thursday, the third straight day of violence, with Prime Minister Edi Rama condemning the “chaos” that has left government buildings badly damaged.
Thousands of demonstrators are demanding Rama’s resignation and more support for students, citing poor university conditions and high tuition.
On Thursday, protests had also spread to several smaller cities, as students joined university boycotts.
The escalation comes after months of antigovernment demonstrations in the country originally sparked by a controversial resort development linked to President Donald Trump’s family.
“We demand real change, not empty promises. We want a government that works for its people, not against them,” journalism student Teftalia Papa told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We want a better Albania, where healthcare provides the basic standards every citizen deserves, education provides decent conditions and equal opportunities, and students can afford to study and live without being crushed by rising costs,” she said.
Protesters in Tirana on Tuesday and Wednesday smashed their way into several government buildings and set at least one ablaze.
As protests again began on Thursday, police pushed back crowds trying to approach the education ministry and the parliament, while demonstrators hurled stones at officers, according to an AFP reporter.
Rama earlier posted a video on his Facebook page showing him touring the burnt-out remains of an office at a college campus in Tirana.
“Until yesterday, this was the office of the College of Europe, the school of a united Europe,” he said in the video—his first public comments since the protests began.
“Today, this is the ruin left by hands that are not, and can never be, the hands of students,” Rama said, blaming opposition figures for the violence at the demonstrations.
Images broadcast on local media also showed protesters confronting police in southern coastal cities, with reports of Korce students smashing school windows and blocking streets.
For more than four months, antigovernment protests in Albania have routinely drawn crowds in the thousands.
Triggered by a luxury hotel project linked to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, they became a symbol of alleged corruption and inequality in the country.
Discontent and anger
Protester and media analyst Altin Tufa said several factors fueled the demonstrations, but the alleged clearing of land for the project in a protected coastal area was the “last straw, unleashing people’s discontent and anger.”
“It is the indifference, arrogance, and failure of the entire political class to listen to people’s concerns about economic, political, social, and healthcare issues,” Tufa said.
Police said 65 people were arrested during Wednesday’s protests. The health ministry said in a statement that hospitals in Tirana treated 89 people on Wednesday, including 61 police officers.
