Protesters gather every night, until the early hours of the morning: “No to the Trump family resort.” For some time now, Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump have set their sights —and money— on a stretch of Albanian coast, a lagoon with flamingos, seals, and nesting areas, to transform it into a huge luxury complex. All of this in a protected area that many Albanians want to protect precisely from the Trump family.
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Thousands of citizens gather in front of the Ministry of Interior in Tirana and then march towards the residence of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Protests and clashes have also been reported in other parts of the country. Behind the mobilization is a mega real estate project linked to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, on one of the last virgin beaches in southern Albania, in the Zvernec area, near Vlora.
Kushner’s project, who visited the area with his wife Ivanka Trump in 2024, foresees the transformation of the uninhabited island of Sazan, in the Adriatic, and hundreds of hectares of the Vjosa-Narta protected area, a coastal strip that hosts flamingos, seals, and sea turtle nesting sites. The luxury tourist complex contemplates the construction of a series of buildings that, according to project opponents and various international media, could house up to about 10,000 rooms.
Adriatic Coast
The dispute revolves around a protected lagoon in southern Albania where flamingos, seals, and sea turtles live
Partners of the American couple are the brothers Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, from Qatar, owners of the Power International Holding conglomerate. The two have already disbursed about 200 million dollars to acquire land whose Albanian owners are currently under investigation. Estimates for the total investment vary according to sources and range from several billion dollars, with some placing it around 4 billion.
“For more than a month, machines have been illegally introduced into the area, removing forested areas, destroying dunes, and even blocking the connection between the sea and the lagoon,” denounced environmental activist Zydjon Vorpsi, from the Organization for the Conservation and Protection of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA), during a protest in front of the Ministry of Environment, as reported by the Balkan Observatory.
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The arrival of excavators and fences to close off the area triggered the protests. Some activists reported assaults by private security, and clashes led to arrests of both protesters and security personnel. The local police chief was later dismissed for his handling of the unrest.
Government under pressure
Prime Minister Rama attributes the protests to a “hybrid war” driven by interests contrary to the country’s economic growth
But the issue also has an important political dimension. Critics accuse Edi Rama of having too flexibly facilitated modifications to environmental regulations to allow the project to go ahead. The government responds that the entire area belongs to a category that permits constructions for tourism purposes. “The project has not yet reached its final phase, and the environmental impact study still needs to be completed, so I don’t understand what we should give up,” declared Rama, who maintains that behind the protests there are foreign interests “contrary to the country’s economic interests.” According to the prime minister, a “hybrid war” is developing on social media aimed at preventing Albania from making a “real leap in quality in the tourism sector.”
It is not the first time that the Albanian prime minister has been accused by his adversaries of prioritizing the interests of foreign partners on issues sensitive to the country. Rama was already the subject of strong criticism for the agreement signed with Italy to host two centers on Albanian territory intended to manage some of the migrants rescued by Italian authorities in the Mediterranean. Although the government defended that decision as a sign of the close relationship between the two countries and an opportunity to strengthen Albania’s international role, the opposition presented it as a cession of sovereignty. For Rama’s critics, the project promoted by Kushner follows the same logic: sacrificing part of the control over the territory in the name of foreign investments.
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