Rubber bullets were deployed by Albanian authorities against demonstrators gathered in Tirana, where confrontations have grown in intensity around calls for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down.

On Saturday, demonstrations entered their fifth straight day as high school and university students swelled the ranks of a wider protest movement directed at Rama, whose Socialist Party — positioned at the centre-left of the political spectrum — has governed the country without interruption since 2013. Grievances tied to unequal access to education, a lack of employment, and allegations against public officials had accumulated over time, and the resulting disorder brought those tensions into open confrontation with the state.

Stones, incendiary devices, and fireworks were directed at officers in the area around Rama's office and at other locations across central Tirana. Cars and rubbish bins were set alight by a group of individuals, their charred remains hauled across roads to create ad hoc blockades. When the gathering pressed forward against the perimeter, officers responded by deploying water cannon, tear gas, and baton charges.

Television coverage attributed to one outlet indicated that crowd-control munitions — specifically rubber bullets — had been deployed by officers at the protests, with the outlet noting this was the first such use since the unrest got underway. At a Saturday press briefing, national police chief Skender Hita stated that the units had been put to use across a restricted set of operations.

Thirteen people — nine demonstrators and four members of the police force — were taken in for medical attention on Saturday, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare confirmed. According to Hita, the five-day period of unrest resulted in 167 detentions, with 132 members of the security forces sustaining injuries. Pending the outcome of investigations into whether they had overstepped their authority, seven officers from the force were placed on suspension.

On Saturday, Rama — now into his fourth term in office and having chosen not to step down — walked through commercial areas that sustained damage during the period of unrest. Addressing students directly, he outlined a commitment to hear their concerns and safeguard their ability to hold peaceful demonstrations, while cautioning against any further acts of destruction. In a separate claim, he placed responsibility for the violence on his conservative political rivals.

Tuition costs, deteriorating campus infrastructure, and a shortage of graduate job prospects have all drawn formal objections from students, who have also pointed to what they describe as corruption within the government. Early in Saturday's gathering, a suitcase was ignited by those present and hurled over the wall into the courtyard belonging to the Ministry of Education.

Reporting from the outlet noted that the act was intended to convey participants' resolve to remain in Albania rather than seek opportunities elsewhere, while journalism student Sinan Billa told the outlet that those gathered were calling for their rights, their future, and an improved country.

Those student-led demonstrations have become part of a sustained period of public unrest spanning several months, drawing momentum from a broader push against the government whose roots lie with the Flamingo movement — an organisation that first took shape in opposition to a luxury resort development planned along Albania's southern coast. Ties between the venture and an investment firm that Jared Kushner established — he is married to Donald Trump's daughter and served in the Trump administration — have drawn attention from observers tracking the deal.

Calls for Rama to step down have since been folded into the protest agenda, alongside accusations of corruption directed at his administration. Protests that began in Tirana have since extended to other parts of the country. Accounts from local outlets placed the unrest in the coastal city of Durres, where a post office was attacked and roads were cut off by flaming barricades, carrying the confrontations well outside the capital.