In Albania’s capital, street fighting erupted during demonstrations against Prime Minister Rama’s policies. Protesters accuse the government of suppressing the opposition.
Riots broke out in the Albanian capital, Tirana. Thousands of counter-demonstrators engaged in street battles with police and threw Molotov cocktails at government buildings.
Security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. More than 1,000 policemen were on security duty. Clashes erupted outside Prime Minister Edi Rama’s office and the headquarters of his Socialist Party, with demonstrators setting fire to a Rama poster with Molotov cocktails.
Corruption allegations and suppression of opposition parties
Unrest also spread in the area in front of the office of the Interior Ministry and the ruling party Tirana Mayor. Further clashes broke out between protesters and security forces. According to the police, ten officers were injured.
Protesters accuse Rama’s ruling Socialist Party of corruption, nepotism, electoral fraud, influencing the judiciary and trying to silence the opposition. “Join us, this is disobedience,” protester Erges Eskiu said over a loudspeaker. “All left and right, pensioners and students, parents, you’ve all been robbed.”
Leader of Opposition Under house arrest
Demonstrators protested the house arrest of opposition leader and former head of government Sally Berisha on corruption charges during his tenure as prime minister.
Berisha’s Democratic Party protested outside parliament last week after a party colleague was jailed for defamation. Erwin Chalianji appealed against this judgment to the Supreme Court of the country.
The Democratic Party, which has staged sometimes violent protests against the government since 2013, is demanding Berisha’s release from house arrest. The former prime minister criticized the investigation and his arrest as political repression and ordered by Prime Minister Raman.
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