Protestsupdated 1h ago2 min read
Tirana Students Protest Luxury Kushner Resort, Demand Edi Rama Resignation After Police Tear Gas
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Tirana students demand Rama's resignation over Kushner resort deal and corruption. Ninth day of protests in Tirana; police crackdown causes injuries, arrests, and property damage.
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Tirana protests intensify
Students and pupils in Tirana joined broader discontent about rising living costs and a luxury tourism project linked to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and protesters demanded the immediate resignation of Edi Rama. KhaberOnline said protests rapidly entered a violent phase after a harsh, swift police response, and it described police using tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse protesters approaching the Ministry of Education.
KhaberOnline said protesters then moved toward the city center and the prime minister’s office, where police forces used water cannons and tear gas and protesters set a vehicle on fire. Edi Rama appeared in a live broadcast on social networks from inside a perfume shop that was looted during the unrest, and he announced the launch of a new online system so that businesses damaged during the protests could apply for compensation.
Rama, dialogue, and arrests
On October 20 at 1:15 PM, students refused the “dialogue” offered by Edi Rama by overturning red chairs placed in the morning in front of his offices with the inscription “Dialog,” and they shouted “No resignation, no dialogue!” Edi Rama proposed a “no-conditions” dialogue, except with those who commit violence, and he described the trouble as “hybrid warfare.”
Masked special units entered bars after processions dispersed and carried out targeted arrests of young people, and numerous testimonies described the practice as almost ritual. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama condemned on Tuesday a “hybrid war” he believes is at the origin of the violent protests shaking Tirana for a week, and he quoted his framing of the unrest.
EU bid, resort, and stakes
MEPs accused Albania of deploying “sneaky” practices to fast-track a proposed Trump-linked luxury resort amid protests that had turned increasingly violent, and riot police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds. The controversial project foresees construction of up to 10,000 villas in coastal areas that were environmentally protected until the government passed a contentious law allowing “strategic investors” to build in parts of the Vjosa-Narta landscape.
Rama pledged to “listen to the voices of young people” taking to the streets, while Greta, a student in Tirana, said “Albania is not for sale.” Prime Minister Edi Rama set up chairs outside Parliament in a symbolic gesture for dialogue, and protesters calling for his resignation later smashed the chairs.