Albania’s Student Protests Widen Into Anti-Government Revolt

Violence broke out in Albania on Sunday as student-led demonstrations entered their sixth day, with anger over education, unemployment and corruption broadening into a movement demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation.

Thousands assembled outside the Education Ministry in Tirana, where protesters threw rocks, and police deployed tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

Demonstrations have spread beyond the capital, posing Rama's biggest political challenge since he took office in 2013.

The confrontation continued into Monday, when hundreds returned to Tirana’s main square and the education ministry.

Rama accused demonstrators of crossing a red line after petrol bombs struck a police station and the entrance to the interior ministry on Sunday.

“Protests are a right, whereas violence is a crime; this red line must be drawn clearly at this critical stage of our democratic development,” he wrote on Facebook.

Authorities said about 300 people had been injured, with police accounting for more than half.

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Student Demands Become a Wider Revolt

The latest demonstrations have brought demands for better university conditions together with wider grievances over living standards and the government’s conduct.

They follow months of largely peaceful opposition to a luxury coastal development backed by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Participants in those earlier protests have joined students who say the government has failed to address their concerns.

“We will continue our movement until Rama resigns. We are not criminals; we want social peace and better living conditions in our country,” Leka Sina, a 22-year-old science student, told AFP on Monday.

Marjana Koceku, a 25-year-old lawmaker recruited by Rama for his Socialist Party before becoming an independent, also joined the demonstrations.

She cited environmental and land policies as reasons for breaking with the government.

Villagers told Reuters in July that land intended for the Kushner-backed development had been sold without their consent.

Reuters found no evidence of wrongdoing by Kushner, who is not directly involved in that dispute.

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Police Response Faces Scrutiny

Government buildings and banks have been set on fire during the unrest, while demonstrators have broken storefront windows and thrown stones, petrol bombs and fireworks at officers.

Police chief Skender Hita said on Saturday that police had arrested 1,067 people and that 388 faced criminal proceedings.

Reuters journalists saw police fire a shotgun toward crowds outside the education ministry that day and recovered rubber pellets. Two of the agency’s journalists and several protesters were hit.

Hita did not deny that rubber bullets had been used.

He said seven officers had been suspended pending disciplinary investigations into excessive use of authority and failures to act proportionately, without identifying the incidents involved.

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Rama Links Unrest to EU Accession

Rama, who secured a fourth term last year, has rejected demands to leave office.

On Sunday, he argued that the demonstrations endangered Albania’s accession to the European Union rather than his parliamentary majority.

His government is targeting membership by 2030. The European Commission condemned violence in Tirana and other cities while welcoming the authorities’ commitment to safeguarding the right to demonstrate.

Rama has offered talks with students but said on Monday that dialogue would exclude people committing violence and parties that failed to condemn it.

He has also blamed foreign interference, accusing Russia and Iran of mobilizing fake social media accounts around environmental causes.

Those accusations have become part of his response to a movement whose demands now extend well beyond the coastal development that helped mobilize it.