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Albania’s Rama promises police €2,500 bonuses, links unrest to Antifa
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Monday promised a €2,500 bonus to every police officer on the front lines of the anti-government protests and warned that students who attack police will lose scholarships and free education. He also tied the unrest to Antifa and accused Russia and Iran of stoking anger online, without offering evidence.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hardened his stance on Monday as anti-government protests entered their second week, announcing cash rewards for police and penalties for young demonstrators who turn violent. Speaking at a meeting with State Police leaders in Tirana, Rama said each officer deployed on the front lines against the protests would immediately receive €2,500.
“We did not set it according to salary. The same amount for everyone, because at this moment you are all one, and one for all,” Rama said. He also promised police a “considerable” pay rise from Jan. 1, saying the increase had been decided weeks earlier during work on the new budget.
“They will not have free education”
Rama warned that students who skip school to attack officers would face administrative consequences and lose state support. “They will not have free education,” he said, adding that students who assault the State Police would receive neither scholarships nor financial aid from the state.
He told the families of minors involved in the violence that they would foot the bill for the damage: “I say to all the families of those minors, you will pay.” Taxpayers’ money, Rama said, would be spent on repairing the sidewalks, traffic lights, cameras, benches and trees destroyed in the unrest, not on students who had thrown stones at police. BIRN reported that he did not explain the legal basis for the measures or which institutions would enforce them.
Antifa, Russia and Iran
Rama also linked the protests to Antifa, citing President Donald Trump’s designation of the movement as a terrorist organization. He alleged that Russia and Iran had deployed thousands of fake social media profiles to fan discontent with his government, starting with environmental rallies against tourism developments in Zvërnec and on Sazan Island. According to AFP, the wave of protests was initially sparked by a controversial resort development linked to Trump’s family.
He offered no concrete evidence of Russian or Iranian involvement, called Iran a “terrorist Republic,” and acknowledged that most of the participants were young Albanians. Questioning whether the movement was really about students, Rama said, “This is not a revolt about education,” and cast the unrest as part of a coordinated attack on Albania’s bid to join the European Union.
Moscow had already rejected the accusation. In a statement released by the Russian Embassy in Tirana late Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, “No, Edi Rama, it is your country’s citizens who have taken to the streets to protest,” and urged him to solve his own domestic problems.
Molotov cocktails and rubber bullets
Footage aired by Albanian broadcaster News24 shows a demonstrator in a yellow hard hat beating shield-carrying riot officers with a stick beside a police water cannon truck.
Authorities say about 300 people have been injured since the protests began on Oct. 13, more than half of them police officers. Petrol bombs were hurled on Sunday at a police station and the Interior Ministry’s entrance. Police have used water cannon and tear gas and, since Saturday, rubber bullets.
A second News24 clip, which the channel labeled the sixth day of the protests, shows protesters throwing petrol bombs at a line of police in central Tirana.
Critics push back
Belind Këlliçi, deputy leader of the opposition Democratic Party, accused Rama of paying officers €2,500 so that the beating of Albanian children and students would continue. A five-point declaration signed by 735 lecturers and academics called for Rama to resign and for police violence against students to stop, while Albania’s ombudsman has opened administrative inquiries into the use of force and how detainees, including minors, were treated.
Rama, who also accused the government-critical channels News24 and Syri TV of tax evasion and money laundering without providing evidence, said he was open to dialogue with everyone except political forces behind the violence. He ruled out stepping down: “For me, the prime minister’s office is not a workplace. It is a mission entrusted to me by more than 800,000 Albanians under a contract that ends in 2029.”
Protesters say they will keep going. Hundreds gathered again on Monday in Tirana’s main square and outside the Education Ministry. “We will continue our movement until Rama resigns,” Leka Sina, a 22-year-old science student, told AFP.
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