In brief
Tirana is once again shaking as student protestors and riot police clash for the seventh consecutive day, with 295 injured reported, including 186 police officers. Prime Minister Edi Rama accuses foreign influence and threatens resignation plans, while protest leaders call for a technocratic government to prepare for democratic elections. Tear gas, water cannons, and stone‑throwing have turned streets into a battlefield, leaving residents seeking shelter and first‑aid aid. Human rights lawyers point to a lack of evidence in police arrests, and civil‑society activists continue to coordinate demonstrations from the shadows. The unrest reflects deeper grievances over corruption, poor university conditions, and the costs of delayed EU membership.
For the seventh day in a row, Tirana’s streets are slick with tear gas and dust as hundreds of students and university students confront riot police in a violent push to oust Prime Minister Edi Rama.
According to official figures, 295 people have been wounded, 186 of them police officers, in the latest round of clashes that began on Sunday. The unrest has been fueled by demands for better university conditions, anger over corruption and long‑standing calls for Rama’s resignation.
Rama, arriving in the city on a trireme of armored vehicles holding water cannons, has called the protest movement “a target of a well‑coordinated attack” and warned that any negotiation would mean state collapse. He said, “If the state negotiates, the state has fallen.”
A convoy of police vehicles advanced down a broad boulevard, trailing a water cannon and flooding the crowd with chemical irritants. Protesters fled into Rinia Park, taking refuge in a cafe where many occupants—waiters, patrons, and volunteers—saw the chaos up close.
“The police actions are often chaotic and stupid,” human rights lawyer Gentian Sejrani told the BBC. He says he handles more than a hundred arrests that rarely produce evidence in court. When asked about volunteers in yellow jackets guarding the park, he added that many fleeing “got caught because they ran slow.”
At the park’s edge, after the gas cleared, 27‑year‑old Sidorela Vatnikaj—an activist with eight years of experience in anti‑government protests—shared her typical day: drafting plans, ensuring medical help, and keeping her friends safe. She blames the police’s explosive tactics for the violence, yet acknowledges the protesters’ unmirrored frustration.
“They come from families whose members had no other choice than to leave the country— a million in the past decade. They have not only been robbed, they have been bullied, ignored and now they are beaten up,” she added.
With the prime minister’s offer of a one‑year technocratic government, Vatnikaj calls for genuine democratic elections and criticizes Rama’s alleged election rigging and ties to foreigners and organised crime. The unrest underscores a generation’s impatience with an 13‑year dictatorship that pledged EU membership for 2030 but has failed to deliver recognizable reform.
Following Tuesday’s violence, the government called for emergency measures and urged the police to de‑escalate, while city officials halted public transportation as “old habit.” Protesters still plan when next to use a crowd‑control smartphone app, livestreaming violence live on platform X to rally support worldwide.
