For the fifth consecutive day, protesters in Tirana fought pitched battles with riot police, with masked students throwing petrol bombs and police responding with tear gas and water cannon.
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01Summary
- 01Masked protesters, many high school and university students, threw rocks and petrol bombs at police guarding the education ministry.
- 02Police used water cannon, tear gas and, for the first time, rubber bullets.
- 03Eighty people have been charged with disorder, and hundreds more arrested or under investigation.
- 04Prime Minister Edi Rama blamed the opposition Democratic Party and what he called foreign actors seeking to halt Albania's EU progress.
- 05The protests began in early June and have grown into a wider anti-government movement demanding Rama's resignation over corruption allegations.
02Why it matters
These protests threaten the stability of one of the EU's key partners in the Western Balkans and could delay Albania's EU accession talks, which Rama had promised by 2030.
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