Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Sunday refused calls to resign as a week of violent, student-led protests spread from Tirana to other cities. He also claimed that an explosives-laden drone aimed at his office had been stopped two days earlier.
The protests are driven by anger over alleged government corruption, a lack of jobs and poor schools and universities. Protesters have set fire to government buildings and banks and thrown paving stones, petrol bombs and fireworks at police. Officers have responded with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets. Police say 388 people have been charged with criminal offences, and scores of officers and protesters have been hurt.
The unrest follows months of mostly peaceful protests over the summer against a luxury development on Albania's southern coast. The project is backed by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law. That movement later grew to demand Rama's resignation.
Rama has governed since 2013 and won a fourth term last year. In a live Facebook address, he said the protests threaten Albania's bid to join the European Union, not his government. Albania hopes to join the EU by 2030. "Do they want this, do they want that, or do they want the EU?" he asked.
Rama blamed a "foreign hand" and named Russia and Iran. He said the drone was meant to set fire to a wooden building in his office's inner courtyard. He gave no evidence, and nobody else has confirmed the drone claim. Iran has previously denied Rama's claims that it is meddling in the protests.
Photo: Edi Rama at ITB Berlin 2025 (Wikimedia Commons)
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