Hundreds of students marched to Albania’s Ministry of Education on Saturday, in the fifth day of protests against the high costs of education.
The student protest has joined with months of demonstrations over the cost of living and calls for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down, and quickly turned violent, bringing Albania’s capital, Tirana, to a standstill.
On Saturday, the police dispersed the group as it neared the Education Ministry, using tear gas and rubber bullets. The protesters responded by marching downtown toward the prime minister’s office, where they were met by police officers wielding water cannons and firing tear gas. Clashes erupted there between the police and demonstrators, who set a car on fire.
Smaller protests also spread to other major Albanian cities, including Durres, Korce and Vlore. Across the country the authorities had detained more than 167 people; more than 388 had been charged since Tuesday, officials said.
The students have vowed to continue demonstrating. Here’s what you need to know.
Why are students protesting?
The protests kicked off on Tuesday in support of ongoing peaceful demonstrations against a planned luxury development linked to Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law.
“After more than 130 days of a national peaceful protest, we, as students wanted to show that we have many other reasons to protest,” Emir Lecini, a member of the student group that helped start the protest, said on Thursday. “Our system of education is unacceptable, cost of living is high and students are not treated with dignity.”
Prime Minister Rama, who has been in office for 13 years, and in and out of Albanian government since 1998, has been the main target of the anger, and protesters are demanding that he resign.
After five days, the protests escalated further, as soccer fan clubs and other groups angry at the government joined in. Many wore masks as they blocked roads, lighting fires and ripping out wrought-iron fencing to use as barricades. Some pulled up concrete blocks from the sidewalk and smashed the windows of buildings linked to the government. They also vented their anger on banks and financial institutions, pelting rocks at them and wrecking A.T.M.s. On Saturday, many businesses in central Tirana were closed.
How has the government responded?
Mr. Rama has refused to step down. Instead, he said the legitimate protests of students had been overtaken by groups wanting to derail Albania’s plans to join the European Union, one of the flagship objectives of his administration.
On Saturday, he appeared live on social media from a perfume shop that had been looted. He announced a new online platform where businesses damaged in the unrest could apply for compensation.
“My responsibility is clearer than ever in these difficult hours, to protect our citizens and ensure justice,” he said.
Images of the police responding to the student protests with force has also provoked public anger. On Friday, Albania’s national police suspended two officers who were seen on video pushing a student, who local news outlets said sustained a spinal fracture in the incident.
The police said Saturday that five more officers had been suspended for excessive force.
How is the Trump family involved?
Public discontent in Albania initially coalesced around a proposed luxury development linked to Mr. Kushner, his wife, Ivanka Trump, and investors in the Persian Gulf.
The coastal development, expected to cost more than $4 billion, was approved soon after Mr. Trump began his second term and was promoted by developers as a major investment in tourism. But environmental groups in Albania opposed construction near the village of Zvernec and a largely uninhabited island, Sazan.
The protests began after a video circulated online: It showed private security guards on May 30 dragging away a man who had joined a few dozen residents and environmental activists on a beach in southern Albania that Mr. Kushner and his business partners want to be part of the proposed hotel and resort. Dubbed the “flamingo revolution,” a nod to the region’s rich bird life, the protests had until this week been largely peaceful, resembling a nightly carnival in Tirana.
Mr. Rama said last month that the development was on hold while the government assessed how it would affect the surrounding environment. Whether construction on the luxury project will proceed depends on the assessment, he said.
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