Violence at demonstrations in Albania – Prime Minister blames “foreign hands”.

Violent riots broke out again on Saturday in Albania during demonstrations for better educational conditions and against the government.

Protesters attacked police with stones and set garbage cans on fire in front of the Ministry of Education in the capital Tirana. For the first time in the five days of demonstrations, police used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, according to a report by a correspondent for the AFP news agency.

Several hundred people took part in the new demonstration. At the beginning, they set a suitcase on fire and threw it onto the grounds of the Ministry of Education - according to their own statements as a sign that they did not want to leave Albania. Violent clashes with the police later occurred.

There have been violent demonstrations in Tirana and other Albanian cities since Tuesday. The protests were initially directed against poor study conditions and high tuition fees, but now there are calls for the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.

On Friday, Prime Minister Rama called for calm and blamed foreign interference for the riots. The protests had “absolutely nothing” to do with the difficult living conditions or the legitimate desire for improvement, he said. “Foreign hands” would fuel the unrest in order to hinder Albania’s accession to the EU. “This is all the work of the same hand, the hand that grabbed the Albanian opposition by the throat, the hand that burned and destroyed Albania more than once,” said a video published by Rama on the online service Facebook, without elaborating on his statement. “These are foreign hands that don’t want Albania to live in peace,” he said simply. The day before he had blamed opposition representatives for the riots.

The government is under massive pressure and has been faced with repeated protests since the end of May. The trigger was plans for a luxury hotel project in a coastal nature reserve. The project is linked to US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner and has been heavily criticized for allegations of corruption and a lack of transparency.