TIRANA: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected calls to step down and said street protests, which continued for a sixth day, were a threat not to his government but to Albania's hopes of joining the European Union. The unrest pose the biggest challenge yet to Rama, who has governed since 2013 and last year won a fourth term in office.
"I am not being challenged, the government is not being challenged, a government majority or a winning party in the elections is not being challenged but a path is being challenged, a mission is being challenged," Rama said in a live address on Facebook. "Albanians need to think very clearly: Do they want this, do they want that, or do they want the EU?”
Rama invited students to dialogue as excavators dug up and removed the paving outside his office in central Tirana before protests started on Sunday. The US embassy in Tirana urged protesters to refrain from violence. "Violence, rioting, physically injuring others, and the destruction of property are not civic engagement," it said. Rama blamed unspecified foreign interests for the protests and for what he said was an attempted drone attack at his office this week. — Reuters
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