Yesterday (October 21) in Tirana was relatively calm, but the reason is the rain. On Tuesday, protesters threw Molotov cocktails at Prime Minister Eddie Rama's office. He continues to call for dialogue, while student protests shake the country
On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, protesters gathered in front of the Government of Albania and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at it, the media reports. The fire brigade intervened on the spot and extinguished the fire. Demonstrators also set fire to a chair as a sign of opposition to the dialogue with Ram, who had earlier placed chairs in front of his office with an invitation to talk with the youth.
According to reports, the police did not use water cannons or tear gas to disperse the crowd, but there was a water tank near the building. Students and their professors announced a gathering in front of the Parliament at nine o'clock in the morning, during the plenary session, and invited citizens to join them. Rama reiterated that "no criticism justifies violence", and his government claims that the violence is instigated by radicalized individuals, not students and pupils.
The professors support the students, but they are not on the front lines of the protest. The students do not agree to a dialogue with Ram, but demand that he resign. Analysts from Tirana assess that the prime minister is trying to make a "ceremony" out of the talks, and that the positions of the two sides are increasingly distant. They add that the police have been very aggressive towards the participants for the last two days, among whom, in addition to students, there are also high school and elementary school students.
The protests started due to dissatisfaction with the state of education as well as the high costs of studying and poor employment opportunities for young people, which is a wave that is currently affecting EU countries, primarily France and Italy. They turned into broader demonstrations against the government with a demand for the resignation of the prime minister.
On October 13, student protests began in front of the Ministry of Education, where protesters threw stones, and on October 14, a fire broke out in the ministry. The police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets and water cannons.
The wave of anti-government protests, dubbed the "Flamingo Revolution," has been ongoing since May 2026 over plans for luxury tourism projects such as the $1,4 billion Sazan Island resort linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
The movement grew into a broader mobilization against corruption and state capture. The European Union called for restraint and the protection of the right to peaceful assembly. There were similar student protests in Albania in 2018-2019. when Rama replaced half of the ministers.
For the citizens of Albania, it is the biggest crisis of Edi Rama's government in the last few years and a test of his ability to talk to calm the protesters who are demanding his resignation.
It is important for the region that another student movement is questioning the government. The comparison with Serbia arises because here, too, students are leading protests demanding that responsibility for the deadly fall of the railway station canopy in Novopm Sad be determined and they refuse dialogue with Aleksandar Vuฤiฤ.
The violence at the protests gives the authorities an argument to present the movement as radical, and the European Union monitors how the crisis is resolved in the candidate country for membership.
This is important for Europe because Albania is the fourth country to be rocked by mass protests in which students and young people play a central role.
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