Do you know the story of Youth Day in Albania?  It is celebrated every 8th of December to commemorate the student movement of 8 December 1990, which overthrew the Communist Regime.

On December 8, 1990, a group of students and professors from the University of Tirana became the initiators and protagonists of the historic turning point— the peaceful protests that brought down the communist system and marked the birth of democracy, under the slogan “We want Albania to be like all of Europe.”
For this reason, today we celebrate the National Youth Day, declared an official holiday in 2009. The date is commemorated every year in honor of all the students of December 1990 and the entire Albanian youth.

Thirty-five years ago, a group of students and professors delivered the first symbolic “blow” to the dictatorship, overturning the 50-year communist regime through the protests they organized starting from the “Student City” area toward the central square of the capital. They sparked the country’s great historical transformation by rising up in demonstrations that led to the fall of the communist system and the arrival of democracy.

With the call “We want Albania to be like all of Europe,” young people demanded the establishment of Western democratic values, the rule of law, European integration, and the guarantee of political pluralism as the foundation of a free and democratic society.
The Student Movement of 1990 remains the only peaceful movement that changed the course of Albania’s history.

On the night of December 8, around 300 students began what would later be known as the ‘90 Student Movement. It started when the lights went out in Student City.
Organized, they marched from Student City toward the center of Tirana. That night, their march stopped between their campus and the main boulevard, unable to cross paths with intellectuals or professors. Their ranks grew minute by minute, reaching almost 1,000 people… but in the darkness, police in helmets, special units, and numerous State Security agents appeared from all sides.

They used every means to break them… but the students did not stop—neither that night nor in the days that followed.

The next day, on December 9, the students addressed a clear list of demands to Ramiz Alia, requesting political pluralism, freedom of speech, and the acceleration of democratic reforms.
The protests continued over the next two days, until the evening of December 11, when during a meeting with Ramiz Alia, political pluralism was confirmed. Immediately after returning from that meeting, students announced its approval and began organizing for the founding of the Democratic Party.

The Student Movement continued with further demonstrations and actions in early 1991, leading up to the hunger strike that culminated at midday on February 20, 1991, when students—supported by professors and many citizens of Tirana—entered Skanderbeg Square, bringing down the statue of the communist dictator and putting an end to the regime.
This historic act finally opened the path to freedom for Albanians after nearly half a century of oppression.