TIRANA
Protesters and police clashed in Albania’s capital on Thursday, the third straight day of violence, with prime minister Edi Rama condemning “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 fees.
On Thursday protests had also spread to several smaller cities, as students joined university boycotts. The escalation comes after months of anti-government demonstrations in the country originally sparked by a controversial resort development linked to US President Donald Trump’s family.
“We want a better Albania, where health care 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.
“We demand real change, not empty promises. We want a government that works for its people, not against them,” journalism student Teftalia Papa told media.
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 a media 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.
