Albanian police beat student protesters with batons and dragged them through the streets of the capital on Tuesday, leaving dozens injured, as a demonstration over education and government corruption turned into hours of street clashes.
Officers also fired tear gas, water cannons and pepper spray at thousands of protesters outside the Ministry of Education. Dozens of people have been detained, according to local media. Police had earlier confirmed 23 detentions. The confrontation was still going on Tuesday evening.
Dozens of injured students were being treated at the Trauma Hospital in Tirana on Tuesday evening, Albanian media reported. Authorities have not released a figure for injured protesters. Police said six officers and a female journalist were hurt, none of them seriously.
The protesters were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. As police cleared the streets, Rama was in Luxembourg, where Albania was set to close another chapter of its European Union membership talks. It is the fourth chapter Albania has closed in three months, a pace the government has made central to its message at home.
Video from the scene shows officers swinging batons at protesters as they forced the crowd back from the ministry. Several young people were seen with blood streaming down their faces.
In one clip, more than a dozen officers drag a single protester across the pavement. Others were carried off by their arms and legs and put into police custody.
Tear gas canisters landed repeatedly among students running toward the city center, and police kept bringing in more water cannon trucks as the evening went on.
The protest began peacefully around 2 p.m. About an hour later, some demonstrators started throwing eggs and paving stones at the ministry, shattering windows and forcing open a metal gate.
Police said masked protesters attacked officers with Molotov cocktails, firecrackers and rocks after refusing orders to leave the ministry’s courtyard. In a statement, police called their response “proportional”.
The police statement made no mention of batons or of the protesters who were seen being beaten during arrests.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the protesters. No inquiry into the officers’ conduct has been announced.
Minister of Interior Ervin Demo condemned the attacks on police “without reservation” but said nothing about injured protesters. Deputy Prime Minister Albana Koçiu wrote on Facebook that violence “will never be a solution.”
The crackdown did not empty the streets. Thousands of people marched from the capital’s main boulevard to join the students, chanting “Resignation”.
Student organizers told Reuters they were protesting conditions at universities, the cost of tuition and the lack of jobs for graduates. Many in the crowd went further and accused Rama’s government of impoverishing the country through corruption.
Tuesday marked the 136th straight day of anti-government protests in Albania. The movement, known as the “Flamingo Revolution”, started in late May near the coastal village of Zvërnec.
It began as opposition to a luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, in a protected wetland where flamingos nest. It has since grown into a broader revolt against corruption and inequality.
Rama, who has been in power since 2013, has refused to back down.
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