In the Albanian capital Tirana, thousands of demonstrators have again called for the resignation of Prime Minister Rama. It came to violent clashes with the police.
Violent clashes between police and demonstrators in the Albanian capital Tirana hit several people late on Saturday night.
The supporters of the united opposition gathered in front of the Parliament building on Saturday afternoon and once again demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
As demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails and bangers on the police chain in front of the parliament, the officers used water cannon and tear gas. Later, the demonstrators moved in front of the police headquarters and threw there according to media reports Molotov cocktails. The police used water cannons again to disperse the crowd. Several demonstrators were arrested, it was said. At least twelve policemen were injured in the missions. There is no reliable information about the number of injured demonstrators.
„We are here with a mission: to liberate Albania from crime and corruption and to make Albania like the rest of Europe,“ opposition leader Lulzim Basha told several thousand demonstrators. He announced that the protests would be bigger and more determined as long as „the government keeps Albania away from Europe.“
The crowd chanted „We want a European Albania“. The slogan was coined by the democracy movement in 1990, when the Balkan state said goodbye to communism.
The opposition wants to boycott local elections
It was already the fourth major demonstration this year against Rama. Albania’s opposition has been calling for the resignation of the head of government for months. She accuses him and the ruling Socialist Party (PS) of electoral fraud and corruption.
More than 60 members of the right-wing Democratic Party (PD) and its allies resigned their parliamentary mandates in protest at the end of February. Now the opposition announced that it would boycott the local election in late June. Rama called this a „blind policy.“
Contradicting since the end of socialism
The post-communist PS and its rival PD have been deeply hostile since the end of socialism almost three decades ago. The EU and the US recognize the government in Tirana as legitimate. The US embassy condemned the riots. The violence contradicts the claim of the opposition to strengthen democracy in Albania.
