SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 29 March 2024, Friday |

Albanian opposition protests against corruption, poverty

On Saturday, thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated in front of the Albanian prime minister’s office to protest the high cost of living that is driving people out of the country and to accuse Edi Rama’s administration of corruption.

Sali Berisha, the head of the opposition, led protestors who threw firecrackers at the doors of government buildings where hundreds of police officers wearing anti-riot gear were blocking access.

“(Edi Rama) resign, go where you belong, to the pillar of shame, the traitors’ house,” Sali Berisha, head of the opposition Democratic Party said, adding that a new protest will be called in front of the parliament on Monday.

Berisha, a former president and prime minister, is banned from entering the United States over alleged corruption. He denies the charges.

During the protest Berisha accused Prime Minister Rama of corrupting U.S. officials to lobby against him and against opposition parties. Such accusations are rejected by both Rama and the U.S. government.

Rama, who is in his third term as prime minister, has denied all accusations of corruption.

“How will I live with 7,000 Albanian leke ($64.64) as a pension. I have to pay rent, electricity, water and everything else. Our lives have become poisonous,” protester Mino Xhindi, a pensioner in his late 60s, told Reuters.

    Source:
  • Reuters