TIRANA — Shopkeepers in central Tirana fitted metal shutters over their windows on Sunday, and city workers pulled up paving stones so that nobody could throw them. The Albanian capital was in its sixth day of street fighting, and the preparations, as Al Jazeera described them, suggest how little anyone expects it to end soon.
Hundreds of protesters gathered again outside the Ministry of Education, chanting “Rama, resign,” in a movement that began as the Flamingo Revolution against a coastal resort linked to Jared Kushner and now includes high school and university students who want better education and more jobs. Police later used rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas on the crowd, according to Al Jazeera.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, in power since 2013 and serving a fourth term, has ruled out resigning, but what he says is behind the unrest changes with the audience. Al Jazeera quotes him blaming a “foreign hand,” while Euronews says he has accused conservative opponents of inciting the clashes. Neither report names the foreign hand he means.
Rama spoke during a live social media stream on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported, saying the government “is not being challenged” and asking Albanians whether they want this unrest or the European Union, which the country hopes to join by 2030. He said he was ready to discuss education costs but that those who destroyed property must be held accountable. Euronews says the movement is partly fuelled by opposition to the Kushner resort, so the corruption charge is older than the tuition complaint.
The casualty arithmetic does not line up. A Ministry of Health report issued Sunday morning counted 65 people injured, 37 of them police officers, with 12 hospitalised, and 272 injured since Tuesday, including 169 officers, according to Al Jazeera, which does not say which clashes the 65 refers to. By simple subtraction, the ministry’s total implies 103 injured civilians. Euronews reported police figures of 167 arrests and 132 injured officers over five days, and said police chief Skender Hita put seven officers on suspension pending investigations into alleged excessive force. Different bodies counted different spans, and no reconciled tally exists.
Scrutiny of police conduct is at an earlier stage. Anadolu reported on Saturday that the Police Supervision Agency was examining suspected violations by State Police officers in Tirana and other cities, gathering footage from media outlets and social networks. Police had already used water cannons in Tirana on the resort protesters in July. In Durres, Anadolu noted arrests on Saturday without giving a number.
Rama has offered to talk about tuition. Whether the students will take that offer, and which foreign hand he believes is behind them, was still unanswered in the reports available on Sunday.
