Prime Minister Edi Rama appears to have lost his public composure after a week of protests, ordering police on Monday morning to target every protester without distinction.
“Anyone who is in a violent demonstration is a target of the state police. There is no ‘I had my hands in my pockets’ or ‘I had my hands over my eyes watching how the police were killing someone.’ You are there because you are there. If you are not involved, you don’t stay there. You go to the other side and protest peacefully. And for that reason, you are just as much a target of the police as the other one.”
“Strength, courage. Do not feel any kind of pressure,” the prime minister said.
The threat to use force against all citizens present at the protest is not only a signal of further escalation but also an indication that he has lost control of events.
To motivate the police, Rama announced a €2,500 reward for every police officer and promised salary raises starting next year.
The police has already shown excessive use of force against students, children at the protest, and journalists.
Television footage in live broadcasts and videos that have gone viral on social media have shown officers beating neutralized protesters with rubber batons, violently detaining children and young women, and indiscriminately using tear gas, rubber bullets, and every other actions of force.
Rama bullied the young protesters, calling them “hostages” of a “destruction ideology” or “blind people without education, who don’t know where they come from or where they are going, victims of many things,” while holding up a stone he has been carrying for two days.
Without offering any convincing evidence for his theory today, Rama labeled the protests and the protesters as people inspired by a terrorist organization like ANTIFA.
The prime minister once again didn’t speak out about any of the concerns have brought angry on the streets..
Instead, he threatened students saying that “all those others who leave school to assault the police will not return to school will not grant free education.”
Students took to the streets over the quality of public education in Albania, the poor conditions in universities and dormitories, the high cost of living, and university corruption.
Their main demand was the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, whom the students see as the cause of the problem rather than the solution.
Rama has refused to resign, a position he reinforced again today meeting the police officers.
“There is no political solution with artificial changes of leadership, with artificial changes to this country’s path, in the name of calm, in the name of love, in the name of peace. There isn’t and there won’t be.”
The protests turned violent after more than three months in which young people, environmental groups, and many Albanian citizens held peaceful demonstrations in front of Prime Minister Rama’s office with specific demands.
Protesters called for the cancellation of changes to the law on protected areas. They protested against government corruption, the lack of transparency in decision-making, and the absence of public accountability from the government and the prime minister.
Rama said today that he had heard their demands but beyond the rhetoric, he ignored the voices outside.
The project linked to Jared Kushner in Zvërnec continues to raise many questions, despite the prime minister’s public promise of transparency.
Over the past three months, the National Council of Territory and Water has issued a series of permits for towers and resorts in Tirana and along the coast.
In a sudden competition in September, the prime minister approved the construction of two towers in Rinia Park, the only green space in the center of Tirana.
The cost of living remains high for the majority of Albanian families. The Institute of Statistics lately published that inequality rose in 2025, and 4 in 10 Albanian citizens cannot afford basic expenses such as keeping their homes warm, a week of vacation a year, or an unexpected bill of 30,000 lek.
