Albania protests enter seventh day of clashes with police, nearly 300 injured

Protesters in Albania have fought with riot police on the seventh consecutive day of violent clashes. Many of the protesters trying to oust Prime Minister Edi Rama are high school and university students. Official figures said 295 people had been injured, 186 of them police officers, before Monday's violence.

The protesters' demands include better university conditions, anger over corruption and calls for Rama's resignation. A police station and government buildings in Tirana have been attacked during the protests. The streets of the capital now see scenes of clashes every day.

Prime Minister Edi Rama has taken a hard line. Brandishing a rock hurled at police on Sunday, he told grim-faced police chiefs: 'The moment the state negotiates with this, the state has fallen.' His remarks made the government's uncompromising stance clear.

Rama also claimed the protesters had been radicalised by 'dark forces' in Europe and the US. In his words, 'Albania has become one of the targets of a well co-ordinated attack.' The protesters, however, refuse to accept that allegation; at the centre of their anger lie complaints of long-standing corruption and neglect.

In Tirana's Rinia Park, also known as Youth Park, people were seen in brilliant October sunshine prising loose cobblestones — as ammunition for later battles with police. They did not have long to wait: a convoy of police vehicles advanced down a broad boulevard, led by an armoured truck firing water cannon and tear gas canisters among the fleeing protesters.

Squads of riot police chased the predominantly student crowd through the park. Protesters took refuge in a cafe where even the waiters' eyes streamed from the tear gas. Under trees, volunteers in yellow reflector jackets stood their ground helping those overcome by the fumes. A young man was seen remonstrating with a policeman, who then fired pepper spray in his face at point-blank range.

Human rights lawyer Gentian Sejrani has strongly criticised the police role. Providing legal support to more than 100 arrested people, he said: 'The police actions are often chaotic and stupid. In court, the police rarely present evidence.' His clients include a man arrested on his way to a bus stop — completely unrelated to the protests, he said.

Sejrani observed: 'Those who are actually throwing stuff at the police rarely get caught, because they run the fastest.' Police appear as incensed by the violence against their colleagues as the protesters are by the strong-arm tactics of the police — and the result is mayhem.

Although the movement is without leaders, it does not lack experienced faces. Sidorela Vatnikaj, a 27-year-old masters student and activist, has eight years at the forefront of anti-government protests behind her. She describes her typical day — coordinating in the morning with all the groups, checking where protests are taking place, making sure lawyers, first-aid kits or equipment are available if needed, and checking that friends and family at the protest are all right. Much of the day is spent going from protest to protest, much of it running from police.

Vatnikaj is uncomfortable with the violence towards the authorities from her fellow protesters, but blames the police for starting and fuelling it. She said: 'When I see people throwing stones at the police, I understand their anger. I don't judge them. I'm not happy, but they have no other way to be listened to.' In her words, these young people come from families whose members had no choice but to leave the country — a million people have left in the past decade. 'They have not only been robbed, they have been bullied, ignored and now they have also been beaten up.'

At the weekend the prime minister asked rhetorically what would happen if he stepped down. Vatnikaj replied: 'We need a technocratic government for one year, to prepare the country for real, democratic elections.' She has accused Rama of rigging previous elections and of being hand in glove with rich foreign investors and organised crime groups.

Vatnikaj said young people in Albania feel encouraged by their fellow Gen Z protesters around the world. In her words: 'I have seen my mother and father's generation, working all their lives and dreaming of having a democratic society where they could live with dignity. That never happened.' Rama has been in power for 13 years and has been a dominant figure in Albanian politics since the turn of the century; he has promised EU membership by 2030. After the seventh day of clashes, the question now is which way this movement turns.