Albania protests hit sixth day, 272 hurt, Rama won’t quit

Police and protesters clashed in Tirana for a sixth straight day on Sunday as Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected demands to resign, with 272 people injured since the unrest began on Tuesday, Albania’s Ministry of Health said.

Updated Oct. 19, 2026. Of those hurt since Oct. 13, 169 were police officers, according to the ministry figures reported by Euronews. The ministry counted 65 injured on Saturday, the worst day so far, and 28 on Sunday, including 19 officers, four protesters, four passers-by and a journalist.

The latest wave began over poor university conditions, high tuition fees and corruption. Crowds gathered outside the education ministry and chanted “Rama, resign.” Sinan Billa, a journalism student, told AFP: “We are demanding our rights, our future and a better country.”

On Sunday police used water cannon and tear gas, and protesters set rubbish bins on fire, smashed windows at the governing Socialist Party headquarters and set fire to a police station and the entrance of the interior ministry, Euronews reported. Police spokesman Albert Nushi said the police station was attacked with Molotov cocktails and fireworks, endangering officers and people in custody. “An attack on a police station is not a protest,” he said.

Police chief Skender Hita said 167 people were arrested over the first five days and that seven officers were suspended pending investigations into allegations they exceeded their authority, Al Jazeera reported, citing AFP. Hita said police used rubber bullets “in a limited manner” on Saturday for the first time in the protests. He put the number of officers injured over those five days at 132, a lower count than the health ministry’s later total, which covers six days.

Rama, who has governed since 2013 and is in his fourth term, said in a video address lasting more than an hour that the protests were the work of an “outside hand.” He said on a live social media stream that “the government is not being challenged,” and asked whether Albanians want the unrest or a path into the European Union, which Albania hopes to join by 2030, Al Jazeera reported. He also said he was ready to discuss students’ demands over education costs but that those responsible for property destruction must be held accountable. Albania’s side cancelled his planned Monday visit to Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, Euronews reported.

Mentor Nazarko, a Tirana political analyst, told Al Jazeera that Rama does not grasp the depth of the problem and that his legitimacy has collapsed. Lindita Karadaku, a journalist with TV Klan, said: “At this moment, no one is clear what tomorrow will bring.”

The European Commission condemned the violence in Tirana and other cities, said the response must remain proportionate and called for grievances to be handled through dialogue, noting Albania is a candidate country committed to EU accession. The U.S. embassy in Tirana urged “restraint and calm on all sides.”

The student protests add to months of anti-government demonstrations by the so-called Flamingo movement. That movement began in May in opposition to a luxury tourism development on Albania’s southern coast linked to an investment company founded by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and has widened into demands that Rama step down amid corruption allegations against his government. The unrest has also spread to the port city of Durres, where protesters damaged a post office.

For Canadians, the Government of Canada’s travel advisory for Albania remains at the lowest level, “take normal security precautions,” but was updated Oct. 15 to say violent confrontations, arrests and property damage have occurred in central Tirana. It tells travellers to avoid areas with demonstrations, follow local authorities’ instructions and monitor local media.

Canada News Media first reported on the unrest when it entered its third day, with 89 people hurt. The toll has more than tripled since. Related coverage of the bloc’s wider pressures is in our report on the Oct. 15 EU summit.

It is not yet clear whether talks will start or whether the unrest will continue into a second week. The Albanian government has not announced a date for any meeting with student representatives, and the figures above come from officials and have not been independently verified.

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Via Euronews, Al Jazeera and AFP.