Fire at Albania’s Education Ministry as student protests continue in Tirana

Albania’s Education Ministry caught fire amid overnight unrest in Tirana, and student protests continued outside the building on Wednesday, October 14. Riot police used tear gas and water cannons as demonstrators pressed demands over university conditions, costs and prospects after graduation. Reports give different figures for arrests and detentions.

Fire at Albania’s Education Ministry

Al Jazeera, crediting AFP and Reuters, reported that protesters broke into the ministry overnight on Tuesday and set a fire inside, according to police. DW also reported that the ministry caught fire during the student protests on Wednesday. The account that protesters entered the building and started the fire is attributed to police; the two reports establish that a fire occurred.

The demonstrations continued outside the ministry on Wednesday. Al Jazeera described hundreds of students gathering and throwing rocks at the building. It also reported that demonstrators pulled out nearby fencing and used it to block a street. DW described a crowd of thousands outside the ministry, with some people throwing bricks, damaging sidewalk barriers and overturning trash cans. The reports do not establish whether their crowd estimates refer to the same moment or area.

DW separately reported that a nearby bank caught fire, attributing that account to Reuters, which cited a witness. The witness account does not establish what started the bank fire. It adds another reported incident to the unrest around the ministry, where the students’ demonstration and the police response continued into Wednesday.

Police response, injuries and custody figures

The accounts give different custody measures and totals. Al Jazeera said police reported 16 arrests following the overnight violence. DW said police had reported around 40 detentions by early Wednesday. Neither account establishes whether the groups overlap or whether the figures cover the same period. The distinction matters because an arrest count tied to overnight violence and a broader detention count cannot be combined into a reliable total.

Students’ demands and the government response

Student organizers told DW that they were protesting conditions at universities, the cost of higher education, financial support and employment prospects after graduation. Al Jazeera reported that students told local media about university conditions, tuition fees and inadequate support for young people. Their stated demands concern both the expense of studying and the opportunities available when they leave university, placing the confrontation at the ministry within a dispute over education and young people’s prospects.

Deputy Prime Minister Albana Kociu urged demonstrators to distance themselves from violence and vandalism while acknowledging their right to protest, according to Al Jazeera. DW reported that Kociu called the violence ‘orchestrated’ in a Facebook post and criticized attacks on institutions, police and public property. Her response addressed the clashes and damage as the organizers continued to press their demands on university conditions, costs and support.

Months of protests in Albania

Al Jazeera quoted Besar Likmeta, editor of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania, saying the student protests followed four months of daily rallies in the capital known as the ‘Flamingo Revolution.’ Al Jazeera reported that the earlier movement began over a resort project linked to Jared Kushner in a protected area of southern Albania, then broadened to concerns about corruption and opportunities for young people. That wider protest history gives context to the students’ demands without changing the immediate focus on the ministry fire and Wednesday’s police response.

DW traced demonstrations in Albania to May and said they were partly prompted by a disputed construction project on the Adriatic coast in a protected area where flamingos live. It also described broader dissatisfaction with the country’s dominant political forces. Those grievances form the backdrop to the student demonstrations in Tirana, where the reported fire, clashes and differing custody figures mark the latest development in the continuing unrest.