Albania's Student Protests Grow as PM Rama Blames 'Antifa' and Foreign Plots

On Tuesday, students and faculty from the University of Tirana gathered outside the Education Ministry in the Albanian capital. The damage from the October 13 protests was still there to see: smashed windows that have not been replaced, and walls blackened by fires set that day.

The demonstration came after nearly five months of anti-government protest in Albania. It began peacefully, set off by the disclosure of plans for a luxury hotel complex inside a nature reserve. Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and his associates intended to build it. The movement has since widened. College and high school students now clash with police almost daily, and the fiercest confrontations so far came last week.

The protesters denounce corruption, mismanaged universities and the rising cost of education. They want Prime Minister Edi Rama, in office since 2013, to resign.

At the ministry on Tuesday, a woman who asked to be called Sara spoke to DW with a black hooded jacket on and a scarf over her face. She feared repercussions for talking to the press. Protesters, she said, communicate by text message, "the only way." She ended the interview early when some demonstrators began throwing stones at the ministry. Police pushed protesters and journalists back and used water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Besmir Semanaj, a prominent Albanian cybersecurity advocate, says the movement lives on phones. Young Albanians, he told DW, no longer organize through parties, associations or public appeals. They use Instagram, WhatsApp groups for year cohorts, departments and dormitories, Telegram channels for announcements, and TikTok for video. Those most concerned about security use Signal. Telegram has been especially useful, he said, because a channel can reach tens of thousands of people within seconds and is harder to control from outside. The structure is horizontal, with no individual leaders and no central command, which Semanaj says is why the government struggles to understand and control it.

Rama has called the uprising a "hybrid war." He has said the protesters think they can improve Albania through TikTok without being able to string together more than seven coherent words. Not all are terrorists, he said, but he believes they are hostages to a new ideology whose only goal is to destroy and raze everything. Over the five months he has named a series of supposed masterminds, alleging that the governments of Greece, Russia and Iran are stirring dissent. His latest target is "antifa." He describes the young people as radicalized and indoctrinated, acting under a "dark force" that has emerged in Europe and the United States and that the US president has designated a terrorist organization.

Security researcher Redion Qirjazi, who focuses on violence prevention and conflict resolution, told DW the claim is unlikely to prove true. He said it is a serious accusation requiring equally compelling evidence, and that no verifiable evidence has been presented of an organized antifa structure in Albania, let alone one coordinating the protests. He added that antifa is not a unified international organization with central leadership, but an umbrella term for various anti-fascist movements. Sara rejected the "terrorist" label. Some groups are willing to use violence, she said, but she has nothing to do with them and walks away when she sees it.

Arlind Qori, chairman of the Together Movement, a social-democratic opposition party holding one seat in parliament, says the motive is dissatisfaction, not ideology. He cited poverty, parents who emigrated because they could not support their families, a declining education system and a lack of prospects after graduation. The central demand is Rama's resignation, he said, "not a socialist revolution," and Rama answers it with police violence and arrogance.

Qirjazi suggests the foreign-interference claims may be strategy. Tying demonstrators to extremism and outside influence can shift attention from the actual causes toward national security, he said, delegitimizing protesters, eroding public support and justifying a tougher crackdown. Semanaj calls it a familiar pattern: protests portrayed as violence, young people cast as manipulated, and concerns about universities, tuition, corruption and prospects vanishing from the news agenda. Whether the government addresses those grievances, or keeps the focus on antifa, is what to watch.