The crisis entered a dangerous new phase on the fourth consecutive day of demonstrations, as protesters broke through metal barricades and surged toward the Prime Minister’s office in Tirana — with police responding with water cannons and tear gas as crowds refused to disperse and demands escalated to calls for Edi Rama’s resignation.
The scenes marked a significant escalation from the largely peaceful gatherings of previous days. According to our sources, protesters tore through the metal barricades separating them from the Prime Minister’s building as riot police deployed water cannons against the advancing crowd. The demonstrators did not retreat, gathering directly outside the seat of government as chants of “Rama Must Resign” echoed across the capital.
The previous day’s rally — the third in succession — had drawn enormous crowds to Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard, with citizens marching for three consecutive hours from 6pm to 9pm. Banners were directed at both sides of the political establishment, with protesters chanting “Rama to prison, Berisha to prison” — a pointed signal that the movement refuses to be co-opted by any political faction. Demonstrators have explicitly demanded that no political figures join their ranks, insisting this is a citizens’ movement rather than a partisan one.
The message from the crowd has grown sharper and more personal. One young speaker addressing those gathered outside the Prime Minister’s office urged Albanians not to abandon their country. “Don’t leave Albania — it’s our country. It has to leave,” he said, referring to the government. “Students are the ones who change the government, who make a revolution.” The call resonated strongly in a country that has lost hundreds of thousands of young people to emigration in recent decades, with many seeing the Zvërnec development as the latest symbol of a political class that prioritises foreign capital over its own citizens.
What has further enraged protesters is the response of Sali Berisha, leader of the opposition and a former Prime Minister, who dismissed demonstrators as a “group of hypocrites” and told them to “let them tear crocodile tears as much as they want.” The remarks were met with fury, cementing the crowd’s insistence that neither the government nor the traditional opposition speaks for them — and that their demands for accountability go far beyond any single party or project.
Protesters have made clear they will not accept negotiations. The movement that began over the Kushner-linked resort development on a protected coastline has now broadened into a direct challenge to the Albanian political establishment itself.
