Student protests in Tirana turn violent, buildings set ablaze

Tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Tirana on Wednesday, setting fire to a government building and two banks and throwing stones at police, in a protest over rising education costs and corruption that demands Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation.

Why it matters: It is the most violent outburst yet against Rama, who won a fourth term in May last year: a summer of peaceful protest has now produced fires in the capital, and the movement rejects the opposition parties as an alternative, leaving no obvious political exit.

Data as of Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Toronto time. The Reuters report was opened and read in full via Business Day; France 24 carried the story in the evening feed scan with the same headline facts. Crowd size is the Reuters report's figure; casualty and arrest detail is still emerging and is not stated here.

Tens of thousands of students marched in Tirana on Wednesday and the protest turned violent: demonstrators set fire to the education ministry building and two banks, including a Raiffeisen Bank branch near the ministry, hurled stones at police, overturned bins and smashed shopfronts, Reuters reported. Police answered with water cannon and tear gas. Student organisers said the protest was about university conditions, higher education costs, a lack of financial support and job prospects after graduation, and marches spread to universities in Elbasan and Shkodra.

The government condemned the violence, with Deputy Prime Minister Albana Kociu saying protest is a legitimate right but cannot excuse destruction, and police warning that anyone who burns property or attacks officers will face the law. The unrest caps a summer of peaceful protests against Rama that began over a proposed luxury resort on the southern coast backed by Jared Kushner and caught in legal disputes, and it lands amid wider student protests in France over school conditions.

Student protests in Tirana turn violent, buildings set ablaze

Sources