For five straight days, the centre of Tirana has belonged to young people with scarves round their faces and rocks in their hands. Among them on Saturday was George, a 19-year-old medical student who works as an electrician to pay for his studies. He stood near the burnt-out education ministry building, goggles over his eyes, a scarf wrapped across his face, clutching two rocks intended for the police.
Asked whether he worried about hurting the officers facing him, his answer was blunt. “We have mothers too. We have family too,” he said. “We were peaceful for 135 days. Now we are trying to do like in France… we are trying to make a revolution. Our government doesn’t want peace, so we are using violence.”
George is one of thousands who have joined protests that began in early June and have grown steadily more intense. Many of his fellow demonstrators are even younger. Klea, 17, is in her first year at university in Tirana. “All the students are boycotting their university classes and left school to fight for our rights,” she said. She also alleged that provocateurs were moving among the crowds, smashing up stores and banks in order to discredit the demonstrations.
Saturday’s clashes were the fifth in a row. Masked protesters, many of them high school and university students, hurled rocks and petrol bombs at riot police defending the education ministry, one of the focal points of the unrest. Officers answered with water cannon and volleys of tear gas, scattering the crowds, and there were reports that rubber bullets were used for the first time.
The human toll of the street battles is visible everywhere. Volunteers moved through the crowds handing out syringes of saline eyewash to ease the pain of tear gas billowing down the streets. Many protesters wore gas masks or face coverings. In the afternoon the crowds shifted to the office of Prime Minister Edi Rama on the city’s main boulevard, swelling to far larger numbers than on previous days. Police faced a steady hail of cobblestones and fireworks and replied with barrage after barrage of tear gas, some canisters landing deep in the crowds and causing panic. Incensed, demonstrators waited for the gas to clear, then renewed their attacks. Black smoke from a burning vehicle and the sirens of police cars and ambulances split the afternoon. As dusk fell, special forces arrived to reinforce the riot police.
Many people have been injured on both sides. So far 80 people have been charged with disorder, and hundreds more have been arrested or are under investigation. The centre of Tirana increasingly resembles a war zone, scattered with broken glass and burnt debris.
The students say they stand against “the whole corrupt political class”, and the question of what should replace it is one they are still working out. Osman Stafa, a prominent journalist for the News24 channel who also describes himself as an activist for change, has called for a “neutral, caretaker government for one year, to organise new elections”.
Meanwhile, the roots of the unrest run deep. The protests began over corruption allegations linked to the administration of Rama, who has been in power for 13 years and has dominated Albanian politics much as his main rival, Sali Berisha of the opposition Democratic Party, did for decades. In a social media post on Saturday morning, Rama urged Albanians “not to forget that we have achieved extraordinary things”. He blamed the unrest on the Democratic Party and on what he called “the sinister agenda of foreign actors, intent on halting our progress” towards EU membership, which he has promised by 2030. He did not name which foreign actors he meant. The irony, for Albania’s European partners, is that Rama has long been viewed favourably by the EU, which the country aspires to join.
His troubles now run deeper than the streets. Parallel to the protests, investigations by the special prosecution service, set up under EU and US pressure in 2019, threaten his rule. Prosecutors recently arrested the powerful secret service chief Vlora Hyseni, accused of helping Ergys Agasi, a prominent businessman, former government official and personal friend of Rama, evade justice. The 39-year-old is under arrest. Speaking through his lawyer, Agasi denied the allegations and said he had nothing to do with corruption. Hyseni told prosecutors she had contacted Agasi to try to recruit him to the intelligence services. Several Albanian media outlets claim he acted as an intermediary between the prime minister and organised criminal groups. Rama has admitted knowing Agasi but denies any knowledge of illegal transactions.
“Edi Rama is caught between a rock and a hard place,” Lutfi Dervishi, a political analyst and university lecturer, told the BBC. “He’s the victim of his own success. By concentrating so much power in his own hands, he has made himself the only person the people blame for their grievances.”
Rama’s Socialist Party still holds a comfortable majority, with 83 of 140 seats in the Albanian Parliament, and the next elections are not due until 2029. But for the young people filling the boulevards each evening, that timeline offers little comfort. Their movement has already tarnished the image of a leader once seen as steering his country towards prosperity, and on the streets of the capital, they show no sign of going home.