Thousands of people heeded the organisers' calls and attended the rally in Tirana, where authorities counted several government buildings attacked, dozens of demonstrators arrested and more than 300 protesters and police injured, according to Al Jazeera. Riot police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who threw rocks at officers and started a fire at the door of the agriculture ministry, according to The Hindu. Student-led demonstrations, fuelled by anger over perceived government corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards, have engulfed central Tirana and spread to other cities this month.
Anti-government demonstrations in Albania continued for a seventh consecutive day as Prime Minister Edi Rama renewed his offer of unconditional dialogue with protesters amid violent clashes with police in the capital, Tirana, local media reported. Riot squads deployed tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds near Rinia Park, and confrontations escalated as demonstrators hurled stones, pyrotechnics and Molotov cocktails at officers stationed near the Interior Ministry.
Protests against the Albanian government entered a seventh day on Monday, with hundreds of demonstrators outside the Education Ministry chanting “Rama, resign”, The Hindu reported. The demonstrations began on Tuesday, with students demanding better university conditions, lower tuition fees and action on corruption, and Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected calls for him to resign. The European Commission condemned on Sunday the use of violence in Tirana and other cities, and the Health Ministry said 272 people were injured in clashes since Tuesday, including 169 police officers.
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected protesters’ demands that he resign on the sixth day of violent anti-government protests; Albanian police fired water cannon and tear gas on Sunday. Le Monde reports the same refusal to resign on the sixth day of violent demonstrations.
Tirana saw a sixth consecutive day of violent protests on Sunday: Prime Minister Edi Rama, serving his fourth term, ruled out resigning and a Health Ministry report issued on Sunday morning counted 65 people injured, 37 of them police officers, and 12 hospitalized, according to Al Jazeera. Hundreds of protesters gathered again at noon in front of the Education Ministry, chanting “Rama, resign”, in a tense standoff with police, who later used water cannons and tear gas to hold back the crowds, The Hindu reported.
Albanian police are using rubber bullets and other riot control equipment to disperse anti-government protests in Tirana city center, on a fifth consecutive day of demonstrations in which participants are trying to seize government buildings, according to TASS, which cites the CNA news portal. Protesters in Albania are demonstrating for a fifth day in a row to demand the prime minister’s resignation, according to Le Monde.
Police in Albania fired what appeared to be rubber bullets at protesters on Saturday, the fifth day of mass student protests demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama step down, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Reuters video footage showed police firing a shotgun toward crowds outside the education ministry during clashes with protesters, and reporters found rubber pellets on the ground; pellets hit two Reuters journalists and several protesters, leaving round marks. Rama rejected calls to resign on Thursday, as thousands of protesters smashed windows and fought running battles with riot police firing water cannon and tear gas in the capital.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama blamed “foreign hands” for the student-led protests calling for his resignation, which have turned increasingly violent, according to Al Jazeera. In a video address on Friday, he said there are “foreign hands that do not wish for Albania to be at peace”. Police said 160 people were detained over alleged acts of violence on Thursday evening, and the protests spread to Elbasan, Shkodra and Korca, where demonstrators broke windows and set fire to rubbish bins, local media reported.
Demonstrators broke into Albania's Ministry of Education building overnight and set fire to the interior, according to police, who counted 16 arrests. Hundreds of students gathered, threw rocks at the ministry and demanded better university conditions and the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, according to Al Jazeera. Tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Tirana on Wednesday, setting fire to a government building and two banks and throwing rocks at police during a protest against rising education costs and corruption, according to Reuters, in a text published by Brasil 247.
Albania’s Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime (GJKKO) ordered on 21 September 2026 that Vlora Hyseni, director of the State Intelligence Service (SHISH), be placed under house arrest and suspended from office, as part of the investigation into the National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI), according to the statement from the Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) carried by Albeu and Panorama. Hyseni is under investigation for disclosing an investigative secret and for aiding the perpetrator of a crime; Prime Minister Edi Rama announced her immediate dismissal, saying he expects “every suspicion raised by the prosecution to be investigated and clarified fully through an independent judicial process”.
Panorama reports that Hyseni was in Baku, Azerbaijan, for an international meeting of intelligence chiefs when the measure was issued, was not at home on the morning of Tuesday, 22 September 2026, and entered Albanian territory through the Morina border crossing. Reuters reported that the court suspended the spy chief on suspicion of disclosing classified information to unauthorized people in connection with the AKSHI case, which manages Albania’s digital public services and IT infrastructure; Hyseni, who is originally from Kosovo, has headed SHISH since 2023. The same decision authorized searches at the home of former State Police chief Ilir Proda and at a villa complex in Durrës, and ordered pre-trial detention for a section head at the Institute of Forensic Police and an employee of a private company, according to Albeu.