Hundreds of young Albanians gathered on Saturday in front of the Ministry of Education in central Tirana, on the fifth day of a growing student movement against the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama. The protest escalated into violence when a group of masked young people threw stones at riot police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons.
Today’s protest was called as an all-inclusive national gathering, where, in addition to students and high school pupils, citizens and representatives from the diaspora were expected to take part. Protests against corruption and the lack of jobs have begun to spread across Albania, but Rama has rejected calls for his resignation. According to police data, so far 500 protesters have been detained, 330 of whom have been released. Around 120 police officers and 45 protesters have been registered as injured, although many cases of injuries to protesters are likely not to have been recorded.
The Albanian Ombudsman, Endrit Shabani, has published preliminary findings from monitoring carried out over four days of protests across the country, identifying concerns related to detention conditions, the treatment of minors and allegations of the use of violence against persons deprived of their liberty.
In a statement to the media, Shabani said that teams from the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture have monitored the situation in police stations No. 1 through No. 6 in Tirana, in the Security Block, at the Trauma Hospital, as well as in the police stations of Korça, Vlora and Shkodra. According to the Ombudsman, in the past 72 hours 214 detained persons have been contacted, while confidential interviews have been conducted with arrested and escorted persons, injured persons, doctors and psychologists.
Shabani also announced that on October 14 and 15 alone, 128 persons received treatment at the Trauma Hospital, of whom 86 were police officers, 38 protesters and 5 minors. The Ombudsman condemned all forms of violence that have accompanied the protests in recent days. “We condemn violence against police officers. We condemn violence against protesters. We condemn damage to public and private property, including businesses”, the statement reads.
What are the protesters’ demands?
Students say they are protesting against the high costs of education and government corruption, while their main demand is the resignation of the government led by Edi Rama. High school pupils have also joined them. Classes have been boycotted at universities in Tirana and in several other cities, as well as at some high schools in the capital.
They say they are also angered by the sale of untouched areas of the Albanian coastline for the construction of a luxury tourist complex, backed by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. The unrest poses a challenge for Rama, who won a fourth term last year, promising to lead Albania toward membership of the European Union. He aims for the country to join the EU by 2028.
Earlier on Friday, Rama called for calm and blamed “foreign hands” for the violent unrest of recent days. He did not identify them, but said they aim to obstruct his country’s efforts to join the European Union. “These are foreign hands that do not want Albania to be calm,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook page.
Rama insisted that the protests have nothing to do with “the troubles, the problems, the legitimate aspirations of everyone who wants a better life”. “All of this is that same hand, that same hand that has gripped the Albanian opposition by the throat, and that has burned and destroyed Albania more than once, and that is ready to burn and destroy it again, so as not to let it move forward,” he said./REL/