Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama delivered a strong message about the protests that have continued in the country for months and turned violent in recent weeks. At a press conference he held in Tirana on November 5 with Sofia Moreira de Sousa, the European Union's ambassador to Albania, on the European Commission's 2026 progress report, Rama responded to protesters' demand for his resignation.
In the video, Rama says: "Let me say this clearly once again: Under no circumstances can the street force the resignation of a democratically elected prime minister who has a contract with the people." According to Albania's state news agency ATSH, Rama said there was another distinctive feature in his case, noting that accession negotiations with the EU had entered their "final kilometer." He stressed that closing the negotiations by the end of 2027 was an "ambitious but achievable" goal.
Rama said this goal could be achieved not by pursuing "threatening songs, Molotov cocktails, stones and agendas that have nothing to do with this national mission," but by remaining focused inch by inch.
Protests began with a resort project
Demonstrations in Albania began on May 31 in opposition to a luxury resort project planned in a protected area in Zvërnec, in the country's south. According to Euronews, the project is linked to a venture associated with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. The government argues that the project would be transformative for the tourism sector and the EU accession process.
As the protests grew in June, demonstrators listed five demands: the government's resignation, the removal of the special status granted to strategic investors, the withdrawal of the "Mountain Package," and the repeal of amendments to the Law on Protected Areas and the Law on Cultural Heritage. According to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), the demonstrations gradually turned into a demand for the government's resignation over "corruption and economic mismanagement." Clashes between police and young protesters took place daily in October, while student protests that began outside the Ministry of Education on October 13 gave the demonstrations fresh momentum.
The government responded with new regulations that took effect on October 28 and that Rama described as a "package against violence and urban anarchy." The regulations provide for fines of up to 5,000 euros per participant for failing to comply with an order to disperse and for concealing one's face. According to BIRN, police have fined 83 demonstrators in recent days for blocking roads and obstructing traffic. Fifteen civil society organizations argued that the law violates constitutional rights and freedoms.
"The hands of the criminal regime in Tehran are on the boulevard"
In this video, Rama says it is easy to mock the involvement of foreign actors in the protests, but that this involvement "has been real from the June protest until today." Rama said: "I have never said that Iran organized the protests. What I said is that the hands of the criminal regime in Tehran are there, on the boulevard, and that there is evidence of this." Rama recalled that a well-known French figure who speaks about malign interference targeting democratic countries had explicitly said several days earlier that Albania was also part of this hybrid war.
According to Albanian Radio Television (RTSH), Rama distinguished between the mass protests in June and the boulevard demonstrations that later turned violent with "stones and Molotov cocktails." He said the government had taken transparency measures in response to citizens' concerns, lowered basic food prices and reduced the circulation tax on fuel. Rama also rejected comparisons between the protests in Albania and the student movement in Serbia, describing them as "two separate realities."
Relations with Iran have been severed since 2022
Albania severed diplomatic relations with Iran on September 7, 2022, after a cyberattack in July 2022 temporarily brought down the government's digital services, and gave Iranian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country. Rama said there was "undeniable evidence" that Tehran was behind the attack, while Iran rejected the accusations as "baseless."
In June, Rama also claimed that cyberattacks originating from Iran were responsible for spreading disinformation. Referring to the slogan "Rama ik" (Rama, go) circulating on social media, Rama ironically criticized Iran by saying that "even the government of the ayatollahs in Tehran has joined the boulevard protest," and stressed that citizens in Albania could protest against the government without fear of punishment.
Videos: Clash Report. Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Matti Blume, Albinfo)
