35th Day of Protests in Tirana


This Saturday, too, the challenge was met, and the Flamingo Revolution continues to soar.

The square was filled with a sea of tens of thousands of people who had come from all over.

On Thursday, July 2, clashes broke out between the police and a group of students who intended to protest in front of Parliament. As a result, about twenty young people were arrested, and eight of them remain in jail awaiting trial.

“They did it to scare us,” a man tells me, “but even today there are so many of us, and they don’t scare us.”

Free the young people

A new banner from the Levizja Bashke group reads: “Free the boys”

In the square, a large Albanian flag held by dozens of people intersects with a large banner sliding beneath it: “The students say it’s over for you.”

The students say: “It’s over for you.”

Meanwhile, the flamingos and storks have multiplied and, marching in single file to the beat of drums, are passing through the protest line that remains stationary in front of the Prime Minister’s offices.

Flamingos and storks united in the struggle

The flamingos sing “Happy Birthday to You” in Albanian, and some are carrying a large gray cake with the prison awaiting Edi Rama and Sali Berisha in the center.

Happy Birthday to You

Some of the girls are wearing flower crowns, and this is definitely the most cheerful and creative part of the parade

I reach the front of the march and stop to watch it go by: it never ends!

A young man is holding a sign for CNN: Protesters? There are only two thousand (those who have now left the march to use the restroom).

Mauro Carlo Zanella