Tirana (Albania) (AFP) – Violent clashes erupted between police and demonstrators outside Albania’s parliament on Thursday, as protests sparked by a resort development linked to US President Donald Trump’s family threatened to escalate. Protests began in late May against the planned construction of a luxury hotel linked to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner in a nature reserve in Zvernec, on Albania’s southwestern coast.
For the second time this week, crowds gathered outside parliament to confront lawmakers and block entry to the building. Lines of riot police pushed them back, leading to clashes and arrests, according to AFP journalists at the scene. Police used tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannon to break up the crowd, and some protesters tried to push through lines of officers. According to the police, 15 officers were injured in the clashes and received hospital treatment, while four remained hospitalized. Twenty-five demonstrators were detained, the police said. Two demonstrators suffered injuries and received treatment in hospital, said the health ministry.
People were also seen smashing the windows of an empty police car in a nearby street as the crowd was pushed away from the area. On Tuesday, six people were arrested when demonstrators threw eggs at lawmakers’ cars. The violence is a marked contrast to the overwhelmingly peaceful daily gatherings that have drawn thousands onto the streets since the movement began.
The planned resort was first unveiled in 2024, but the latest wave of protests began after barbed-wire fencing and bulldozers appeared on beaches in late May. Opposition to the project has become a flashpoint for anger over perceived corruption, with protesters calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down over what they describe as a lack of transparency.
© 2024 AFP
