By Fatos Bytyci
TIRANA, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Marjana Koceku’s life changed last year when Prime Minister Edi Rama hand-picked her to run for Albania’s parliament, one of a legion of young lawmakers he hoped would become the face of his Socialist Party.
This week, however, the 25-year-old, now an independent member of parliament, joined mass student protests calling for Rama to step down.
Corruption, a lack of jobs and a general feeling that the government does not work for them have created a deep-seated anger that spilled over this week, when young protesters swarmed the capital Tirana, setting fire to government buildings and banks and hurling pavement stones at police.
The government and the police have condemned the violence. According to police figures, 500 protestors have been detained, 330 of whom have been released. Some 120 police and 45 protesters have been injured, the figures show, although the protester figure is likely higher given that many injuries have gone unrecorded.
Albania’s unrest is part of a wave of student activism in Europe, including in France, where high school students have staged weeks of protests and school blockades demanding more teachers and better facilities.
YOUTH PROTESTS THREATEN RAMA’S RULE
“The country is amazing, but … the wrong policies that have been implemented by this political elite are completely against what the Albanian communities and Albanian citizens have been asking and seeking for so long,” Koceku said during the protests on Friday as police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters nearby.
Rama, a former basketball player, has been in power since 2013, half Koceku’s life. He won a fourth term in elections last year but his administration has since been dogged by corruption scandals.
Rama denies wrongdoing and this week told Reuters that he would not step down.
“Governments are changed through democratic elections and we had them last year, not through violence,” he said.
Still, the protests represent the biggest threat to his rule yet.
They follow months of mostly peaceful demonstrations sparked by plans to build a luxury resort on Albania’s pristine southern coastline. The project, whose backers include US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has faced legal challenges.
Villagers told Reuters in July that their land was wrongfully sold for the development. Reuters later reported that the man who sold the land was wanted by prosecutors on suspicion of drug trafficking, accusations his lawyer denied.
Reuters found no evidence of wrongdoing by Kushner, who is not directly involved in the villagers’ dispute. He did not respond to requests for comment.
That was not the only controversy for Rama’s government. Last year, prosecutors alleged that his deputy prime minister was involved in doling out construction contracts to favoured companies, charges Rama and the deputy deny.
“I didn’t agree, especially with the policies that they were implementing against nature, and our land and our Albania,” Koceku said.
This week, protesters said they had resorted to violence because they had not felt heard.
The Kushner-backed project upset Koceku, who has a close relationship with the land. She is from the remote mountains of northern Albania where her family runs a small, no-frills guest house on the shore of a lake.
“Our country is the Albanian people,” she said, the air around her thick with acrid tear gas. “They create the future, they create the now, and they are the ones who can bring our country forward. Not a single person, not a single government.”
(Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by William Mallard)
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