Interior Minister Ervin Demo: police-force statements and meeting with police chiefs (Sept-Oct 2026)

Ervin Demo became Interior Minister on 11 September 2026, replacing Besfort Lamallari, who moved to the Prime Minister's Office. During the October protests he said two cases of police exceeding their authority had been identified from publicly shared footage and that competent bodies would examine any claim impartially. Reports cite 51 police injured in one escalation. He met senior police leaders on 19 October and gave no statement on the drone claim made by Rama. The Ombudsman opened an ex officio investigation into police use of force on 13 October. Opposition criticism of Demo specifically was not found in the sources checked; the criticism reported is of police conduct generally.