Violent protests intensify across Europe

Law enforcement agencies in Albania, Belgium, and Portugal have grappled with anti-government protests amid growing anger over Europe's worsening cost-of-living crisis.

In Albania, protesters have taken to the streets for several consecutive days to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, while in Portugal, several housing rights movements and trade unions took part in demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday to demand lower prices, better wages, and affordable housing. In Belgium, cost-of-living protesters in Brussels and Liege fought on Saturday with police officers who deployed water cannons and tear gas.

The demonstrations, which flared as police in France arrested about 1,800 people after violent weekend protests, follow Europeans being hit by rapidly rising prices, fuel shortages, and a lack of affordable housing.

In Portugal, a spokesperson for the CGTP union confederation behind Saturday's protests told the Portuguese cable news channel SIC Noticias: "Faced with the rising cost of living, housing, and fuel, even a basic shopping basket has reached an exorbitant price."

Tiago Oliveira, the CGTP's general secretary, told the Lusa news agency the protesters had no choice other than to take part in demonstrations because of the "brutal increase" in housing prices and in the cost of living.

Oliveira said citizens also wanted "to fight against the government's policies" that have caused what he described as the "degradation of public services".

In Belgium, protesters in Brussels threw stones and bottles at police, a journalist from the Agence France-Presse news agency said.

Belgium's Minister of the Interior Bernard Quintin said on Saturday the demonstration was "no longer simply a protest".

"It is pure and simple violence, organized and repeated with the aim of destabilizing our society," he wrote in a social media post.

He added that "all necessary measures will be taken to restore order in the face of the rioters".

The violent protests flared in Belgium after high school students had demonstrated over the rising cost of education.

Protesters in Albania complained of broken bones and other serious injuries after clashes with police in the capital city Tirana on the weekend.

Albania had seen several months of peaceful protests, but violence flared on Tuesday and has since intensified.

"There is no stepping back now," The Independent newspaper quoted an activist called Ervin Goci as saying. "This will continue. The protests will widen and will intensify."

The Tirana protests saw officers in riot gear fire water cannons and rubber bullets on the weekend at protesters gathered behind barricades of burning garbage bins.

But despite the unrest, the country's prime minister has vowed not to stand down, telling the Reuters news agency: "Governments are changed through democratic elections. We had elections last year, not a revolution. My responsibility is to listen, address legitimate concerns and keep Albania moving forward."