The 33rd day of Albania’s protest movement produced its most serious confrontation to date. Clashes outside Parliament on Thursday morning left 15 police officers injured, according to the State Police, and ended with 19 people arrested and a further 12 placed under investigation. Police said Friday morning that work is underway to identify six more individuals involved in acts of violence. Among those arrested is Arbër Lleshaj, detained for striking a journalist.
The morning at Parliament
Thursday coincided with a plenary session, and the protest’s Coordinating Group had announced in advance that demonstrators would gather outside the building. Organizers had publicly called on participants to bring eggs and flour, with the stated aim of pelting deputies whom they accuse of representing organized crime, oligarchs, and the party leader rather than their voters.
According to the Coordinating Group’s account, read out at the evening rally by journalist Klevin Muka, the day’s first incident occurred before the protest’s scheduled 10:00 start. A group of demonstrators waiting at a café near Parliament encountered former Justice Minister Ulsi Manja, whom the Group described as accused of vote buying in Dibër in file 184, accompanied by his bodyguards. A scuffle followed. The Group alleges the protesters were beaten by what it called Manja’s private security, with one demonstrator suspected of suffering a broken nose. Arrests followed the altercation.
The protest then continued outside Parliament, where Socialist Party deputies were surrounded and pelted with eggs. Stones were thrown at police officers. Police intervened to disperse the crowd; the Coordinating Group says the intervention was immediate and disproportionate, involving rubber batons, tear gas, and pepper spray, and that seated demonstrators were dragged away. The State Police reported 15 injured officers.
Separately, journalist Keida Muka was pushed and doused with water by demonstrators while reporting live from the scene. The Albanian journalists’ association AGSH condemned the incident as a serious violation of media freedom.
The evening rally and the march to Station No. 3
The evening rally before the Prime Minister’s office, the 33rd in the series, opened with the Coordinating Group’s communiqué addressing the morning’s events. Muka said the demonstrators had gone to Parliament to tell deputies they do not represent the people and to demand that every plenary session be suspended, in his words, because the people are in the street. The statement accused the government of trying to dirty a protest the Group described as exemplary in its civic character, and closed by declaring that if the government’s argument is violence, the protesters’ argument is resistance, and that demonstrations will continue peacefully on the boulevard.
Activist Edison Likaj told the crowd that police force strengthens rather than weakens the movement, saying every punch adds a hundred more people to the square. Organizer Ilir Xhemalaj accused the police of dragging and beating seated demonstrators, but said the protesters will not answer violence with violence and will fight peacefully until, in his words, the regime disappears. A pensioner from Elbasan mocked the government’s announced pension bonus, saying he would spend the 50 thousand lekë travelling to Tirana for five more protests. Krenar Ahmetaj, a former police official, addressed a message to police director general Skënder Hita, saying he would enter the country’s history in golden letters if he protects his own people. Arben Kola, who customarily leads the march from Skanderbeg Square, urged participants not to fall for provocations.
After the speeches, demonstrators marched to Police Station No. 3, where 11 of the 19 arrested are being held, sat down in the road, and chanted “Lironi çunat” (“free the boys”). The sit-in continued past midnight.
Government reaction
Prime Minister Edi Rama responded on social media, saying the turn to physical violence is the only thing that can now be produced by what he called the embittered failures of Tirana’s political and media boulevard, collectors of criminal records, and the foreign hands behind them. He added that patience is still required, after which comes the turn of reflection. In an interview with Deutsche Welle the same day, Rama said trust has not been lost in Albania, that the boulevard belongs to the citizens, and that Albania cannot become the arena of others’ battles with Trump.
Socialist parliamentary group leader Taulant Balla posted a photograph from the evening gathering before the Prime Minister’s office and said citizens had definitively distanced themselves from what he called the violence of Taliban masked as flamingos. He added that the time for dialogue would soon come naturally with those who had legitimate reasons to protest, from environmental concerns to anger at abuses of power.
Socialist deputy Sara Mila, speaking on A2 CNN, said the protest’s original representatives will appear publicly alongside the Prime Minister and the competent authorities to clarify the situation around the Zvërnec investment, declaring that the sides are moving toward dialogue after what she described as an early period of smoke and disinformation. She cited the government’s mandate of more than 860 thousand votes and its EU accession commitment. In an earlier statement the same day, Mila called the protesters anti-Albanian crows who do not want EU integration.
The Matlija split
Lawyer Dorian Matlija publicly distanced himself from the protest’s organizing group, saying he was separating from what he called the institutional fantasies of constitutional illiterates dressed in the patriotic flag, while remaining part of the civic protest itself. Rama welcomed the statement as a constructive step in the right direction, though belated, and said anyone reaching that conclusion must understand two things: that the government he says opponents brand a criminal regime is negotiating Albania’s EU membership with the strongest popular mandate in 20 years, and that the issues of nature, Vjosa Narta, the flamingos, transparency, anticorruption, and the arrogance of power can only be treated seriously through democratic dialogue with the Albanian government.
US Embassy alert
The US Embassy in Tirana issued a security alert warning American citizens about the nightly protests on the Dëshmorët e Kombit boulevard between Skanderbeg Square and Mother Teresa Square. The alert notes that while gatherings often begin peacefully, they can escalate quickly and spread to surrounding areas including other government buildings, and advises citizens to avoid demonstrations, monitor local media, maintain an emergency plan, and keep a low profile.
On Friday morning, Rama published images of tourists in central Tirana, describing the scene as an ordinary day in the capital.
