Albania’s leader is resisting calls to resign amid student-led demonstrations demanding his ouster. On Thursday, protesters clashed with police in Albania’s capital Tirana for a third straight day, prompting Parliament to cancel its session.

Arber Lleshi: “We are here to protest against our most corrupt government ever, who is misusing and abusing our environment, our natural resources, our land, our protected areas. This is the most corrupt government that our country has ever seen, and it needs to go as soon as possible.”
Protesters are demanding Albanian officials cancel the sale of a swath of southern coastline to a luxury resort development backed by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Albania joins a wave of student-led protests that began in France over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling infrastructure. Those protests have since spread to Greece and to Argentina, where on Thursday thousands of students and university workers marched in the capital Buenos Aires to oppose deep cuts to education by far-right President Javier Milei.

Ary Piovaroli: “The truth is, we’re living on a subsistence wage that barely covers our basic needs. And the truth is, we have colleagues who are in the position of working nights, teaching in the morning and sleeping whenever they can. It’s truly insane, given the situation we’re in. It’s extremely serious.”