The third day of student protests in Albania this Thursday followed the line of the first two: riots, clashes with the police and demands for the resignation of the prime minister, the socialist Edi Rama. He, however, has cleared up doubts about its continuity and has assured that the violence of the protests is the result of the opposition and not the students.
"My responsibility is to listen, address legitimate concerns and keep Albania moving forward. The alternative would be to betray the Albanians who gave me a solid mandate to complete the accession negotiations with the European Union," the prime minister told Reuters.
Throughout the morning, hundreds of students gathered near the Ministry of Education, which was burned down the day before, where they received an immediate response from the police: pepper spray, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. It contrasts with the actions of the authorities the previous day, who stood by while the crowd caused damage to the building.
According to several media outlets in the country, dozens of arrests have already been made this Thursday. The protesters retreated to the adjacent streets, where some began to destroy street furniture, and tried to regroup on several occasions near the Ministry, but the police dispersed them each time in the same way. Meanwhile, many students are boycotting classes and marching in the streets not only of Tirana, but also of other cities, such as Durrës, on the Adriatic; Elbasan, in the center; Korçë, in the south, and Shkodër, in the north.
Throughout the center of the capital, the remains of Wednesday's clashes were still visible: numerous bank branches with their windows smashed, traffic lights and bus shelters damaged, as well as damage to some businesses.
The Albanian Ministry of Health reported this Thursday that some 90 people received hospital care after Wednesday's violent riots, of which 61 were police officers. At the moment, there is no information available about possible injuries during the protests this Thursday.
The protests serve to denounce the deterioration of educational facilities, the cost of studies, the scarcity of financial aid and the few employment opportunities after graduation. They are also part of a broader movement called the “Flamingo Revolution,” which takes its name from the birds that inhabit the wetlands of the Narta lagoon, in which environment Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is promoting a real estate project that environmentalists consider a threat to this ecosystem.
The movement began at the end of May and has continued throughout the summer through mostly peaceful demonstrations. Now, some students justify their resort to violence as a way of demanding action from the State: "We asked [the Government] kindly. We made this protest kindly. Nobody listened to us. And now we are using force. It is necessary," an 18-year-old medical student who was participating in the demonstration told EFE. “Revolution,” says the young woman, who preferred not to identify herself.
“Our prime minister is the personification of corruption,” another hooded protester denounces to Reuters. Meanwhile, Rama has blamed the opposition, led by the conservative Democratic Party, for the violence. From the College of Europe, which burned down the day before, the prime minister has assured that students “are the future” and that the Government is always willing to dialogue with them.
"They look far and want to go further and faster. Students are always welcome and we are always willing to sit with them, talk, debate and find solutions to the problems that need to be solved," said Rama, in a video published on the Facebook social network.
However, according to the prime minister, the damage, such as that suffered by the College of Europe, is the result of “other hands.”
"They are hands that try to sink Albania every time it tries to move forward. They are the hands of an opposition that, with masks that prevent them from seeing, seeks to return Albania to a place to which it will never return. They want to return it to the abyss from which we took it and from which we are emerging, ascending towards the dream of generations: the European Union," Rama declared.
The opposition has expressed support for the protests, although many protesters reject that support and consider the main opposition party to be part of the problem.
