Albanian Prime Minister Rama says antifa is involved in protests — Deutsche Welle
In Tirana, Albania, students and lecturers at the University of Tirana once again gathered near the Ministry of Education amid anti-government and anti-corruption protests that have been ongoing for nearly five months. Participants are protesting corruption, problems in university governance and rising education costs, and are also demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, Deutsche Welle reports.
Clashes near the ministry
After the protests on October 13, the ministry building was left with broken windows and soot marks from fires. During the new gathering, some demonstrators began throwing stones at the building. Police pushed back protesters and journalists and used water cannons to disperse the crowd.
The protests began after plans emerged by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and his partners to build a complex of luxury hotels in a nature reserve. Since then, the demonstrations have grown into a broader movement against the government and corruption; college and school students clash with police almost every day.
Organization through messengers
A protest participant who identified herself as Sara and withheld her name for fear of consequences said that demonstrators coordinate through text messages. Cybersecurity expert Besmir Semanaj noted that young Albanians use Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok and Signal instead of traditional party or civic structures.
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According to him, the movement has a horizontal organizational model without individual leaders or a single decision-making center. Telegram channels are of particular importance, in Semanaj's assessment, as they allow messages to be quickly disseminated among tens of thousands of people.
Rama's statements about antifa
Edi Rama called the youth protests a hybrid war and said that anti-government sentiment is allegedly being fueled by antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist movement. He had previously also accused the governments of Greece, the aggressor state Russia and Iran of inciting the protests.
Security researcher Redion Kiryazi said that such a serious accusation requires convincing evidence. According to him, no verifiable evidence has yet been presented of the existence of an organized antifa structure in Albania or of its coordination of the protests. Arlind Qori, head of the social-democratic Together Movement, instead linked young people's move to the streets to poverty, the emigration of parents, the decline of education and a lack of prospects after graduation.
