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Violent clashes erupted on Saturday evening in the Albanian capital Tirana between police and protesters. The demonstrators accused Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama of corruption and demanded that he resign.
The protest was led by opposition leader and former prime minister Sali Berisha. He called on the thousands who gathered in front of Tirana’s main government building to “unite to overthrow this government and to put in place a technical government to prepare early, free and fair elections.”
After the speeches took place, some protesters threw Molotov cocktails at police, who in turn responded with teargas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
More clashes tok place when groups of protesters marched towards the parliament where they tried to break through police cordons, hurling stones and Molotov cocktails.
Police again responded with teargas and water cannons.
At least 10 officers sustained minor injuries, a police statement said.
According to Berisha, 25 protesters were arrested. “This is the last kilometre toward the end of Edi Rama’s regime,” he said in a speech after the rally outside his party’s headquarters, the right-wing Democratic Party.
The protests took place against a backdrop of both left and right wing parties exchanging accusations of corruption and links to organised crime.
In November, a corruption court suspended deputy prime minister Belinda Balluku, who is a close Rama ally, over her alleged role in a public procurement graft case.
Balluku, also infrastructure and energy minister, has denied the allegations while Rama labelled her suspension a “brutal act of interference in the independence of the executive”.
Addressed by the government, the Constitutional Court in December temporarily reinstated Balluku to her position pending its final ruling.
Next Wednesday, a parliamentary committee is due to review a demand by the corruption and organised crime prosecutors to lift her immunity, which would enable her arrest.
At the same time, Berisha himself is suspected of awarding public contracts to his associates, claims which he strongly denies.
