But over the past month, demonstrators have also called for the resignation of the entire government and the opposition, the repeal of controversial laws regarding investment and the environment which they say pave the way for projects that threaten nature, and the installation of a technical government.
On Sunday, Italian member of the European Parliament Ilaria Salis attended the protests, followed Monday by German MEP Jutta Paulus and Dutch MEPs Tineke Strik and Anna Strolenberg, all from the Greens. Salis, Paulus and Strik addressed the crowd, praising the movement and the Albanian people, and calling for the resort project to be halted.
“I believe the Flamingo protests have a profoundly European, and perhaps even global, significance. They express a popular demand for a radically different model of development — one that rejects predatory capitalism and puts people, communities, and the environment first,” Salis said in a statement after her visit.
She added the protests were a “remarkable example of grassroots democracy in action.”
On Tuesday morning, about 200 protesters gathered outside parliament as lawmakers arrived for a plenary session. Amid calls for deputies to resign and accusations of corruption, some people threw eggs at the lawmakers’ cars. Police gathered to push the protesters back, obstructing a journalist from filming. Some people at the scene suffered minor injuries, according to witnesses.
Tensions escalated further when several people hurled water bottles and stones towards parliament and deputies’ cars, resulting in further confrontations with police, followed by six arrests.