At least 18 protesters have been detained and nine police officers injured after demonstrations outside Albania's parliament building in Tirana turned violent on Thursday, in what marks the latest escalation of a protest movement that has now run for more than a month.

Protesters surrounded the parliament, attempting to prevent members of parliament from entering the building, throwing eggs at their vehicles and chanting "Give up your mandates" and "You don't represent us." Police responded with pepper spray and water cannon after demonstrators tried to remove protective fencing at the entrance. Interior Minister Besfort Lamallari, visiting injured officers receiving medical treatment, accused protesters of overstepping their rights. "No one has the right to abuse the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and demonstration by turning it into blatant violence, involving throwing stones at police officers," he said. Protesters and journalists present offered a sharply different account, with one demonstrator telling media: "We are not living in a European country. The police must serve the people." The Albanian Association of Journalists also condemned the clashes, reporting that camera operators and photojournalists had been attacked by both police and protesters, and calling on all parties to guarantee press safety.

Thursday's confrontation was the second between police and demonstrators this week alone, following a smaller clash on Tuesday in which six protesters were briefly detained. The broader protest movement, which began on 31 May, has drawn tens of thousands into the streets of Tirana and other Albanian cities. The immediate trigger was the assault of a citizen by private security guards during a demonstration in Zvernec — a coastal area in southwestern Albania — against a luxury resort project in a protected natural zone linked to Jared Kushner, the businessman and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. That incident transformed a localised environmental dispute into a wider political movement, with protesters now demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama and accusing his government of institutional corruption and a lack of transparency.

Albania, a small Balkan nation of roughly 2.8 million people that joined NATO in 2009 and is a candidate for European Union membership, has long struggled with concerns over rule of law and political accountability. The fact that a foreign-linked development project in a protected area could ignite a month-long movement reflects deep frustration with how decisions affecting public land and resources are made. With detentions mounting, press freedom under pressure and no sign of the government meeting protesters' demands, the coming weeks will test both the resilience of the movement and the government's willingness to engage with it.