Albanian PM Edi Rama refuses to quit as violent protests enter sixth day

Albanian police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets on Sunday as violent anti-government protests entered a sixth consecutive day and Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected demonstrators’ demands that he resign, AFP reported.

Hundreds of protesters gathered again at noon in front of the education ministry chanting “Rama, resign”. After police moved to disperse the crowds, the protests scattered across the city centre and escalated into hours-long clashes, with demonstrators throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and pyrotechnic devices. Protesters set litter bins ablaze, smashed windows including at the governing Socialist party’s headquarters, and set fire to a police station and the entrance of the interior ministry, according to an AFP journalist.

The health ministry told AFP that 28 people were injured on Sunday — 19 police officers, four protesters, four passers-by and a journalist, SCMP reported. Fourteen of the officers were hurt when protesters attacked the police station with Molotov cocktails.

Rama, in office since 2013 and serving a fourth term, said during a live social media stream on Sunday that “the government is not being challenged”, but warned the unrest could damage Albania’s path to European Union membership, which it hopes to achieve by 2030. “Albanians need to think very clearly,” he said. “Do they want this, or do they want the EU?” Al Jazeera reported. He has blamed “foreign hands” for the unrest.

The demonstrations, which began on Tuesday over poor university conditions, high tuition fees and corruption, have prompted shops in central Tirana to secure doors and windows with metal shutters, while city workers removed paving stones to stop them being used as projectiles. Rama’s official visit to Austria’s Chancellor Christian Stocker, scheduled for Monday, was cancelled by the Albanian side, Khaleej Times reported.