Protests against Edi Rama’s government in Albania have continued for more than 100 days, with participants calling for a change in the way the country is governed and for the prime minister’s resignation.

For more than three months, citizens and opposition supporters have gathered in protests, demanding the resignation of Edi Rama and his government.

Another demand of the protesters is the creation of a technical government which, according to the organizers, would create the conditions for a new political and electoral process.

The protesters are also calling for the repeal of several laws and initiatives they consider harmful to the national interest. These include the law on strategic investments, the law on protected areas and the so-called “Mountain Package.”

Klementin Mile: The protest has shown society that those in power must face demands for transparency and accountability

Albanian publicist Klementin Mile believes the protest has helped strengthen citizens’ demands for transparency and accountability. However, he stresses that the government has not yet taken the protesters’ demands into consideration.

“The value of the protest lies in the fact that it has shown the people that they must raise their voices to demand transparency and accountability from those in power. Even in a democracy, these cannot be considered guaranteed once and for all, since it is necessary for the people to continually demonstrate their strength. In terms of political culture, this is the protest’s contribution. As for the protesters’ demands, the government has not addressed them,” he says.

Speaking to “Bota sot,” Mile says the pressure created by the protest has forced the government to provide more information and reassess its relationship with citizens. Nevertheless, he says, a protest cannot force politicians to implement its demands.

“Under the influence of the protest, the government has been forced to provide more information and reassess its relationship with citizens. In this context, initiatives such as Pasqyra Albania, Besa, Prania Besnike and others can be mentioned. The protest, as a phenomenon, serves as an alarm bell that prompts society to turn its attention to itself and identify its problems.

Nevertheless, a protest does not have the power to force society, politicians or the government to do exactly what the protesters demand. At best, political actors take civic pressure as information and, after processing it politically, meaning pragmatically rather than idealistically, it may lead to structural changes,” Mile says.

Rexhep Shahu: Unclear demands and calls for Rama to go to prison and Berisha to go to prison have weakened the protest

Publicist Rexhep Shahu sees the situation differently. Speaking to “Bota sot,” he says the protest is losing influence as it turns into a routine activity. According to him, the lack of clarity in its demands and the absence of direct pressure on the government are weakening the movement and working in Rama’s favor.

“The protest, which was the only light of hope in Albania, is losing its strength and turning into an everyday occurrence. It is becoming accustomed to its own routine, while people are becoming accustomed to its repetition.

The problem is that wrongdoing in Albania has become commonplace. For more than a decade, people have reconciled themselves to bad governance; they cannot bite the government’s finger, nor do they dare point a finger at it to identify its responsibility for the wrongdoing.

The protest that woke us up and made us believe that something different would happen is also becoming routine. It has turned into a daily demonstration, whereas it should have been an action that forces the government to feel pressure. It should not serve as music for those in power or as democratic window dressing.

The protest’s wording and demands are like cold soup. It did not aim to dismantle, one by one, this government’s criminal laws, cancel contracts or overturn criminal decisions. Instead, it calls for the government and parliament to step down, as well as for the protesters to determine the country’s direction. The demands are: Rama in prison and Berisha in prison.

Anyone who is outside this protest is portrayed as bad. One day the protesters speak out against the government and then go and throw eggs at lawmakers. What can lawmakers do? They are appointed by Rama; it is not the lawmakers who direct Rama, but Rama who orders them around.

All the protest’s forces should have been directed against Rama. Any other direction works in his favor. This is a breath of fresh air for Rama.

Had Kushner not been involved as the son-in-law of U.S. President Trump, the protest would not have received any support from the world’s left-wing media,” Shahu said.

According to Shahu, the protest’s influence has faded because of its unclear demands and the fact that it is not exerting direct pressure on the government.

He says the protest is sliding toward a daily routine and that citizens are becoming accustomed to the situation that has taken hold in the country.

“The unclear demands and ridiculous calls, such as Rama in prison and Berisha in prison, have weakened the protest and diverted it from its mission.

Even if tens of thousands of protesters took part, and even if they were armed with the best weapons, they would not be able to build their own prisons.

Calls against the 30-year-old system remind us of the communist system. This protest cannot change Albania’s system because citizens do not want the dictatorship of communism.

Citizens also reject the dictatorship of Edi Rama’s anarchy, meaning the dictatorship of this government that plunders the state budget, public property and national resources.

The protesters have also weakened their position by declaring that they want to resemble the Serbian protesters, who resisted for a long time.

Despite the good intentions and the social awakening it brought, the protest is dragging along. It has no energy and is being used by various people for self-promotion, without managing to win the public’s trust.

I would like the protest to be hotter and more forceful, but not violent. Nor did I want a festive demonstration in the square.

I do not believe in a protest where women and children hold hands or where children sit in strollers.

I believe in a protest that sets clear and logical conditions for the government and confronts it in the square. I do not believe in repeating a routine for three months, every day, while the government does not even get a thorn in its side.

There is no sign of nervousness among the protesters, and there is no fire in their eyes. They do not stand shoulder to shoulder, but wait for others and wait for the number of participants to reach hundreds of thousands.

I also find the slogans about emigrants ridiculous. Emigrants will not come to overthrow Rama’s government. They have been here.

It seems that the protesters, like most Albanians, are also reconciling themselves to and becoming accustomed to the wrongdoing that has taken over the country,” Shahu further says.

The publicist describes the departure of hundreds of thousands of Albanians as one of the most serious consequences of Edi Rama’s rule.

According to him, the protest in Tirana was initially seen as an opportunity for change, but it is now losing strength and failing to create the necessary pressure on the government.

“In the last 10 years, 760,611 Albanians have left Albania because of poor living conditions, and Europe has legalized them by granting them residence permits in Europe. This is the Albanian tragedy and the national misfortune. No war, no cholera and no Covid would have reduced Albania’s population as much as Edi Rama’s government has reduced it since 2013.

In the national history, no one has stolen from, plundered and depopulated Albania as much as Edi Rama’s government.

In 1945, considered Enver Hoxha’s most murderous and criminal year, he killed and imprisoned 15,000 people. In 2015, Edi Rama imprisoned around 38,000 Albanians, while people who had not paid $30 electricity bills lost their lives in prison.

In short, the protest in Tirana was welcomed as the beginning of the country’s liberation from the domestic and foreign mafia, as well as from criminals, but it is now fading and leaving behind a shadow of sadness.

Edi Rama will not leave power through pleas. This occupier must be removed through civic strength, but it will not be the NGOs associated with him or the sponsors who brought him to power that remove him,” Rexhep Shahu concluded in his statement to “Bota sot.”

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At weekends, it takes around 30 minutes to travel just 3 kilometers on the Tirana-Elbasan highway because of heavy traffic. For several months, the large volume of vehicles traveling toward cities in the southeast of the country has been creating kilometer-long queues along the Tirana-Elbasan road.

Monitor traveled this route on Friday, August 21, and found that the traffic problems begin as early as the village of Shijon, alongside the Elbasan highway.

Specifically, at 4:40 p.m., it took half an hour to travel from the village of Shijon to the Bradashesh roundabout, while the journey continued in heavy traffic along the rest of the road.

Under normal traffic conditions, the 3 kilometers from the Shijon area to the Bradashesh roundabout in Elbasan would take approximately 4–5 minutes by car. Because of the traffic, the journey took around 6–7 times longer than usual.

It also took approximately another 15 minutes to reach the entrance to the city’s ring road, again because of the heavy traffic.

However, the traffic-related stress experienced by travelers from Tirana is leading to a decline in the number of people visiting southeastern cities.

In Pogradec, businesses said demand from foreign visitors for accommodation, restaurants and tourist activities is rising, particularly among tourists from France and the US. However, local businesses are reporting a different trend.

Fewer visitors from Tirana and Elbasan are coming to Pogradec compared with 2–3 years ago, and businesses also attribute this decline to the heavy traffic on the Tirana-Elbasan road.

Representatives of Villa “Bimbli” in Pogradec, whose hotel rooms have primarily been booked by domestic vacationers over the years, said the number of visitors from the capital is falling.

“Vacationers are still coming from Tirana, but their numbers are not the same as in previous years; there has been a decline, particularly during July. The situation has improved during the month, but it is still not like in previous years. One of the reasons may also be the heavy traffic on the Tirana-Elbasan highway,” they said.

The decline in vacationers from Tirana has also been observed by operators of small businesses offering sports activities on the lake.

Gjergji, who owns several boats for rowing on the lake, said the number of vacationers from Tirana and Elbasan visiting Pogradec has now been declining for two years. According to him, the main cause is the heavy traffic on the Elbasan highway.

According to Gjergji, domestic tourist numbers are led by visitors from Maliq, Prrenjas and Korça.

Alternatives for Avoiding Traffic

Heavy traffic and kilometer-long queues on the Tirana-Elbasan highway, particularly at weekends from Friday through Sunday evening, have now been a problem for motorists for months.

The situation is similar during the return journey at the end of the weekend, despite the large number of traffic police officers stationed near the Bradashesh roundabout to normalize the situation. Traffic remains heavy even when traveling at 10:00 or 10:30 p.m. on Sunday evenings.

The problem has become torture for many drivers, including those returning to Tirana from southern coastal cities. To avoid the heavy traffic, they choose to enter the capital via Rrogozhina, only to go from bad to worse, as conditions at the Bradashesh roundabout become indescribable.

Other motorists say they have found an alternative solution by taking the old Qafë Kërrabë road when traffic begins to build up on the highway. However, they do not consider this a particularly suitable option either, because anyone entering the city of Elbasan will once again face traffic until reaching the end of the city’s ring road.

Elbasan Bypass, an Essential Solution

According to experts, the traffic problems on this road—caused not only by the high volume of weekend travelers but also by the disruption generated by construction work on the new Elbasan-Qafë Thanë highway—have created a need for the Elbasan Bypass. Its construction is essential to ease heavy traffic on one of the country’s most important transport corridors./Monitor.al

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The number of births in the country recorded a slight decline in the first half of 2026, but data by county show that the contraction was concentrated mainly in Tirana and, to a lesser extent, in Durrës, while other outlying counties recorded increases.

Until three years ago, Tirana had a positive birth balance due to its demographic pull, particularly among young people moving there from other counties.

Nationwide, 10,229 births were registered in the first six months of 2026, an annual decline of 1%, or 108 fewer births. In Tirana County alone, births fell by 5.5%, dropping from 5,022 babies in the first six months of 2025 to 4,748 in the first half of 2026, or 274 fewer births—nearly three times the national average.

This was the largest decline, both in absolute numbers and in terms of its impact on the national result.

In fact, excluding Tirana, births in the rest of the country would have increased by 166, or around 3.1%. Tirana’s share of total births fell from 48.6% to 46.4% within a year.

The same trend was observed in Durrës, where births declined by 5% over the same period. Taken together, Tirana and Durrës registered 327 fewer births, while all the other counties combined recorded an increase of 219 births.

The trend in births is an indicator of rising living costs in the largest urban centers. Tirana accounts for the majority of jobs, investment and services, but it has also experienced the sharpest increases in apartment prices, rents and service costs.

For young couples, securing a home, making mortgage or rent payments and covering childcare costs are consuming an ever-growing share of their income.

Young couples find it impossible either to rent or to buy a home. At the beginning of July, the average monthly rent for apartments in the capital, across all types of residential properties, reached 721 euros, according to real estate agencies.

At this rent level, calculated against the average gross monthly salary based on the figure published by INSTAT for the first quarter of 2026, an individual living in the capital would have to spend 77% of their gross monthly income, or 97% of their net income, to cover housing costs.

In Tirana, plans to buy a home are closer to an illusion than a reality for low- and middle-income families. The Albanian capital ranks fourth in Europe for housing unaffordability, according to the price-to-income ratio.

Doris Andoni, now an independent consultant working with international institutions who has had a long career in public administration dealing with housing issues, sees the situation becoming increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income families.

“The development of the residential sector is deeply unbalanced, unplanned, concentrated in the city center and within the Second Ring Road, and geared exclusively toward immediate profit. Investments are made spontaneously, without an urban vision, swallowing up green and recreational spaces that are vital to quality of life, while overburdening infrastructure, traffic and every public service. Above all, this is creating a housing system that is completely unaffordable for the poor and the middle class,” she said previously in an interview with Monitor.

“These groups are being driven out of the city, and this is one of the greatest harms being inflicted on urban life, creating a concentration of only one particular category. For now, this may not be visible, but it will become clear when construction is completed and the properties are occupied—or remain unoccupied—because there is a strong possibility that a large proportion will remain unsold or be turned into Airbnbs with a purely seasonal character.”

Tirana Declines, Counties Grow

The decline in births in Tirana shows that the capital’s economic advantages are not translating into more favorable conditions for starting or expanding a family.

Young people are postponing having children, limiting the number of children they have, or moving to areas where housing and living costs are more affordable.

Meanwhile, most counties recorded increases. Fier had the largest numerical increase, with 69 more births, or 9.9%, followed by Berat with 11.1%, Dibër with 9.4% and Kukës with 8.7%.

Increases were also recorded in Elbasan, Lezhë, Shkodër and Vlorë, while Korçë remained unchanged. Apart from Tirana and Durrës, only Gjirokastër recorded a decline, with 19 fewer births. Gjirokastër is a special case because of the extremely aged structure of its population.

The concentration of the decline in Tirana is consistent with the pressure that housing prices and daily expenses are placing on young families./Monitor

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