TIRANA, Nov. 5 – After getting additional attention to their cause by throwing eggs and shouting angry slogans at Albania’s prime minister this week, a group of public university students and professors organized under the University Movement banner have vowed more acts of protest and civil disobedience to prevent the implementation of a controversial higher education law, which they say makes it more expensive to attend university and favors private universities over public institutions.
“As the prime minister likes to say, ‘You haven’t seen nothing yet.’ The resistance continues,” said Klodi Hoxha, one of the protesters. “This law might have passed in parliament, but it will not pass into the university.”
Hoxha and seven other people were arrested Monday after they threw eggs and chanted angry slogans at Prime Minister Edi Rama at one of the University of Tirana campuses.
Rama was leaving a meeting with small business owners at the social sciences faculty building when protesters threw the eggs. The students said the protest was impromptu and anger over the law was mixed with the fact that the government was using a university building for its unrelated policy meetings.
The mostly female group of students could be heard yelling “thief, thief,” “charlatan,” and “shame on you,” as they hurled the eggs.
The public university students are part of a movement advocating against a new higher education law that makes it more expensive for them to attend school.
They say the law re-approved two months ago, with parliament overriding a presidential veto, favors private universities and discriminates against public ones. Students object to the law also because it increases the current modest tuition fees at state universities, while at the same time providing partial funding for private universities with taxpayer money.
Rama refused to answer journalists’ questions regarding the egg incident later in the day, but he appeared to have changed suits, indicating he might have been hit.
– Questions over police conduct
Police said they questioned the eight detained students warning that protesting citizens should respect the laws.
The students were kept for hours at the Tirana police headquarters, charged with resisting police, and released at 7:30 p.m., just in time for the nightly newscasts of the largest television channels.
Meanwhile tens of student protesters camped in front of police headquarters demanding the release of their friends.
“Bring us blankets,” they chanted, indicating they would sleep at the door of the police station.
The University Movement has said the protests would continue, a pledge they kept by throwing eggs at the Ministry of Education the next day.
Police said in an official statement the students had not been mistreated, despite claims on social media by the student group that their members had been forcefully detained.
Police also said female officers had specifically been called to the scene to deal with the female protesters, although the protesters did not indicate any gender bias.
In one amateur video footage posted online, a police officer in civilian clothes is seen slapping one of the protesters. Another protester is seen to be forcefully thrown to the ground by security officials. Members of the group said their hair had been pulled and they had been dragged on the ground.
Albania’s Ombudsman sent officials to investigate at police headquarters.
– The Kosovo connection
Three of the detained protestors were from Kosovo, where, unlike Albania, this type of protest is common. The three young men were members of a partner organization in Kosovo, but they denied media reports that they were part of the Self-Determination Movement (VV), a nationalist political party in Kosovo which aims to unite Kosovo and Albania into a sole country.
VV also denied it was involved in the protest. Its activists have frequently used eggs to attack public officials in Kosovo.
– Opposition not involved
Albania’s opposition leader, Lulzim Basha, said it supported the students efforts to get the law voided. The Democratic Party walked out of a parliament vote on the law. It has also said they will take the new law to the Constitutional Court, though the party has yet to do so — as well as scrap it if they come to power in the next election.
But Basha also said the center-right opposition has no direct ties to the student protesters. Most of the students involved have far-left political leanings and some of them were involved in kicking Basha and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha out of a previous civil society protest, accusing the opposition of trying to highjack their legitimate protest.
– A controversial law
Albanian President Bujar Nishani has been one of the vocal supporters of those who did not want to see the law passed. He vetoed it, expressing concern over the fact that it erodes the autonomy of public universities and increases costs for students.
Nishani had been asked directly to veto the bill in a meeting with academic leaders opposed to the law approved in parliament on July 20. They say it favors private universities and also prevents the poor from going to university due to higher costs.
They add the law deprives public universities of their independence, especially concerning research work, which the state had previously funded only for public universities and now will finance for private universities as well.
The government denies these claims and adds the law will give an end to the low quality education in the country’s universities, be they public or private.
The ruling coalition pushed the through parliament twice, overriding a presidential veto, and Prime Minister Rama has consistently called it a good law.
Expressing surprise at the persistent student protests, including in front of his office, the prime minister walked out to meet the protesters several weeks ago.
“You shouldn’t protest just so you don’t have to go to class,” he told the students.
