Police clash with opposition demonstrators in Albania's capital

(Patria) - Albanian police used water cannons and tear gas on Friday to break up new anti-corruption protests by opposition right-wing demonstrators who threw fireworks and Molotov cocktails.

Thousands of followers of the Democratic Party (PD) of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha first gathered in front of the government headquarters, demanding that Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama resign.

"We will save Albania from Edi Rama, who has pushed the country into poverty and corruption," the eighty-one-year-old Berisha told the crowd.

"He is just a political corpse," AFP reported.

But Berisha had to end his speech soon when some demonstrators threw fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the government building. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Berisha then led the demonstrators towards the parliament building, where they clashed with the police, including riot control forces.

Police and demonstrators fought each other for about two hours on the streets around parliament, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Police said about thirty people were arrested. The Democratic Party said about forty of its followers were detained.

Interior Minister Albana Kociu condemned the "vandalism," saying in a social media post that the attack on the police was a "crime."

Albanian politics are often marked by fierce disputes inside and outside parliament between left-wing and right-wing parties, which regularly accuse each other of corruption and cooperation with organized crime.

Tensions have risen again since November when Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku, a close associate of Rama, was suspended due to a corruption scandal that is now under investigation. She is accused of awarding infrastructure contracts but has denied the prosecutors' accusations.

Several former ministers in Rama's governments have been targeted by corruption investigations. Berisha is also accused of awarding public contracts to associates while he was in power, but he has denied the accusations.

Albania's fight against corruption has been a particular focus of the European Union in membership negotiations with the government in Tirana.