Albania: student protests pass 140 days, demand is Rama's resignation, and the Sazan project is disputed

The protests in Albania, which the media call “Flamingo”, have gone on for more than 140 days. According to a Democracy Now report of October 21, the movement originates with environmental activists who in May opposed a luxury resort on Sazan Island, and has now turned into student protests against corruption and the high cost of living and a demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. The Albanian Student Union called strikes and demonstrations at the Ministry of Education over high tuition, poor university conditions, a lack of jobs and corruption.

The disputed Sazan project, according to the same report, is backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump and was fast-tracked by the Rama government. The island is described as ecologically sensitive, and one of the guests also mentions the protected area of Zvërnec on the southwest coast. That is stated in the report and has not been independently verified here; the two sides' positions on the project are not in the available text.

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How serious is the situation? According to the report, there are hundreds injured and detained. Activist Bora Mema cites more than 500 arrests, which is his statement and is not independently confirmed. Figures reported earlier by Al Jazeera were 272 injured since Tuesday, 169 of them police. Thousands have come out on the streets. Police used tear gas, water cannons, sound grenades and rubber bullets, and demonstrators damaged government buildings, street lights and private property. Mema also cites beatings and detention without water or food for 72 hours; those are his claims.

On October 18 Rama set out chairs outside Parliament as a symbolic offer of dialogue, and protesters smashed them. He said the protests could harm Albania's goal of EU membership by 2030 and earlier linked demonstrators to “antifa”, describing them as a “dark and new force that has emerged in Europe and the United States”. As before, those are his assessments, with no evidence presented.

Rama leads the Socialist Party, has a majority in Parliament, has been in power for 13 years and has refused to resign. The next elections are scheduled for 2029. That means street pressure works through a political cost, not a formal mechanism, until there is a resignation or early elections.

Set in a European context, the tension is clear: on October 14 Albania closed its fourth chapter in negotiations with the EU, and at the same time the European Commission condemned violence and excessive force. The two items are from the same country but from different layers: technical progress in Brussels and a political crisis at home.

What is not known? The exact number of injured and arrested in recent days is not known, nor whether the government and students will sit down at a table. It is also unclear what the position of the investors around Sazan is and what the legal status of the project is. It is not known whether the protests will turn into a broader political movement.

What does it mean? Albania is at once ahead in accession and in an internal crisis. For North Macedonia, as a neighbor and a country that is waiting, this is a warning that the European path does not guarantee domestic calm, and that opening chapters and the streets are two different stories.

MKNews Hub · Macedonia · October 22, 2026