Thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets of Tirana in the largest demonstration yet against a luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner, piling pressure on Prime Minister Edi Rama as Brussels warns the project could jeopardise the country’s bid to join the European Union.
Protesters gathered outside Rama’s office on June 10, with the crowd stretching half a mile down one of the capital’s main boulevards. They chanted “New Albania” and held banners reading “Albania is not for sale”.
The movement, dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution” after the protected wetland birds whose habitat the development threatens, began in late May around the village of Zvërnec in Vlorë County, on Albania’s southern Adriatic coast. It has since broadened into a wider anti-establishment revolt, with demonstrators accusing both the Government and the opposition of failing the country.
The project, expected to cost about €5 billion ($5.8 billion) and backed by Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners, would build hotels on the uninhabited island of Sazan and in the Vjosa-Narta lagoon, home to flamingos, seals and sea-turtle nesting sites. Critics have raised concerns over a lack of transparency and the threat to biodiversity.
Rama, a socialist, has rejected calls to resign and defended the scheme, saying an environmental impact assessment would be completed and the project would proceed responsibly. “The European Commission has no reason to doubt our firm will to protect whatever has to be protected when it comes to wildlife and nature,” he said.
The European Commission has urged Tirana to refrain from “actions that could undermine” its accession bid, amid concerns the development breaches EU environmental standards. The bloc has said it could admit Albania and other Western Balkan states by 2030, with alignment to European environmental law a condition of membership.
Albania’s Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) has opened a preliminary inquiry into how coastal land titles within the development zone were transferred to private entities.
One protester, Leand Lakrori, told Reuters the controversy typified decades of opaque dealmaking. “So today, enough is enough,” he said.
Rama confirmed the involvement of Kushner and United States President Donald Trump, though he said a wider group of investors and architects from Denmark, France, Greece, Japan and Turkey were also behind the plan.
