Berisha has announced the protests will continue with another scheduled for March 22, which is expected to be widely attended. As for whether it will be as peaceful as he proclaims, that remains to be seen.
Since early December, Adriatik Lapaj and his merry band of supporters have been camped outside of the same office on Tirana’s main boulevard. Leader of the Shqiperia Behet centre-right party, Lapaj made a name for himself as a lawyer, then in civil society, before running unsuccessfully in the May 2025 general elections. After winning just one seat in the 140-seat assembly, Lapaj resorted to protests to express dissatisfaction with the status quo: a government steered by Rama for four mandates, some 12 years and counting.
Brandishing a megaphone on the steps of the government building on 31 January, Lapaj accused Rama of being involved in corruption and criminality and a host of alleged state abuse scandals. “very day that passes strengthens their autocracy, their dictatorship, and every scandal that happens makes it even more impossible to overthrow those who are stealing your life, present, and future today, so think carefully. This is a battle between a minority that has occupied offices and divides the budget money and a suffering majority,” he said.
Despite being cleared by police in an incident that saw Lapaj hospitalised after an outdoor heater fell on his head, he is adamant he will remain until Rama and his government are removed from power.
“Our resistance does not stop…The time is now…,” he added during the rally.
But his cries fell on deaf ears as only around 100 people had gathered in support. While his presence continues at the time of writing, his supporters and he are taking turns to “occupy” the space between sporadic rallies, his movement has little clout or influence on public opinion. Furthermore, it was protests from the Democratic Party opposition that made international headlines, not once but three times.
In December, January and February, the party, which was the first to form after the end of communism in 1991 and is led by firebrand former PM and president Sali Berisha, held national protests on the same boulevard. The protests quickly descended into chaos as protestors threw Molotov cocktails at the prime minister’s office, and one balaclava-wearing militant fired fireworks over the police line from an apparently custom-made launcher.
Over the three protests, both protestors and police were injured, and a number of attendees, including a minor, were arrested, with some to face charges. The images went viral and prompted concerned tourists to ask in Facebook groups, “Is it safe to visit Albania at the moment?”
The police defended their actions as proportional in the face of several thousand protestors, pyrotechnics and masked men, while the protestors condemned a disproportionate use of force. While the jury is still literally out on who did right or wrong as investigations continue, Berisha, himself under investigation for corruption and abuse of office, is planning round three.
“I have declared, and I declare, now we have an objective, the removal of this fierce enemy of the Albanians’ existence,” Berisha told the media while announcing the next protest date- February 10. He added the opposition is on the “battlefield” for democracy and urged people to mobilise in a “peaceful uprising against the government.”
But what is behind the resurgence in Albanian opposition protests, and what has got its leaders so up in arms?
Source: envato
For Berisha, a longtime nemesis of Rama, the backstory of this round of protests begins with the May 2025 elections. Rama and his Socialist Party won by a landslide, much to the chagrin of the opposition. Before the ballots were even tallied, Berisha was decrying mass vote buying by the PS, vote manipulation, and a “stolen election.”
But international organisations took a different view, with the OSCE stating the elections were “competitive and professionally managed,” but noting there were “numerous reports of pressure on public employees” and that public resources and institutional power were weaponised in the PS’s favour. While some investigations are still ongoing, no credible instances of large-scale vote buying or electoral manipulation have been found by local or international authorities.
His claims of a bought election continued throughout the year, with a few demonstrations in the capital. But it was not until the autumn that things stepped up a gear.
In October 2025, Rama’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, was called in for questioning by SPAK, the country’s special prosecution against corruption and organised crime. She told reporters she was cooperating with the investigation, which centred on allegations she interfered with the public procurement process for the construction of a road. By November, another accusation, also related to a road construction case, was added, and the court suspended her from duty and banned her from travelling abroad.
Rama asked the Constitutional Court to overturn the order, which it agreed to, but only until a final decision is taken. Prosecutors again appealed this, and the case is ongoing.
By December, the prosecution had asked Parliament to waive her parliamentary immunity to enable her arrest. SPAK announced another seven charges for similar road-construction cases that Balluku signed off on. Balluku has denied any wrongdoing, and the Socialist Party majority has repeatedly refused to lift her immunity.
Balluku’s legal troubles are the latest in a long line of high-level investigations and arrests by SPAK, although she might well be the highest-level to date. Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj has been in prison awaiting trial for abuse of office since February 2025, while former deputy prime minister Arben Ahmetaj is on the run in Switzerland, also accused of corruption.
This has provided plenty of fodder to fuel the opposition’s protests, all demanding an end to the current government, investigations into the prime minister and others, and even new elections.
But SPAK has not only targeted the ruling party. Berisha himself was under house arrest for around a year for corruption related to abuses while he was in power, and he has also been questioned in connection with the killing of four protestors on 21 January 2011, while he was prime minister. Lapaj has also been accused of corruption by another opposition party leader, Agron Shehaj, who claims he carried out work for a company under investigation by SPAK for money laundering. All investigations are ongoing, and both Berisha and Lapaj deny any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Ilir Meta, former prime minister and president, once with Rama, but more recently with Berisha, has been in prison since October 2024, also awaiting trial.
Lower-level officials, including former ministers, directors, and mayors from both sides, have all found themselves in the crosshairs of justice in recent years. At the same time, the public trusts SPAK more than any other institution and seems evenly divided over which political party they think is more corrupt.
Meanwhile, Berisha has announced the protests will continue with another scheduled for March 22, which is expected to be widely attended. As for whether it will be as peaceful as he proclaims, that remains to be seen, as does whether they will achieve their goal.
Rama enjoys the support of well over half of the electorate, and with the opposition facing their own legal troubles and no real, untainted figure available for voters to put their confidence in, any change in government, or the calling of new elections seems unlikely.
Whatever the March 22 protests bring is unlikely to have any impact after the tear gas and smoke from the Molotovs clear.
