By Aishatu Osisanya
LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Thousands of Albanians filled the streets of Tirana for the fourteenth consecutive night carrying cardboard flamingo cutouts and national flags as they marched on Prime Minister Edi Rama’s office demanding his resignation over a 4.6 billion dollar luxury coastal resort linked to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of United States President Donald Trump.
According to Euronews, protests began in late May the coastal village of Zvërnec in southern Albania, have grown into one of the largest sustained popular movements in the country’s post-communist history, with demonstrators advancing five key demands: the resignation of the government, the repeal of special investor status provisions, the withdrawal of the so-called Mountain Package legislation, the reversal of amendments to the Law on Protected Areas, and the repeal of amendments to the Law on Cultural Heritage.
According to Al Jazeera, the planned development includes the construction of hotels and resort facilities on the uninhabited island of Sazan and in the protected coastal wetland of Vjosa-Narta — a biodiversity zone home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals and nesting beaches for loggerhead sea turtles.
Ivanka Trump’s public description of Sazan as their “private island” on a podcast drew widespread outrage among Albanians and significantly amplified the protests, according to Wikipedia’s documentation of the 2026 Zvërnec demonstrations.
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Joni Vorpsi, an ecologist with PPNEA-BirdLife Albania, told Al Jazeera that the environmental stakes were clear. “We want all construction to halt and heavy machines out of the protected area,” Vorpsi said.
Kushner, in remarks cited by Wikipedia, said he wanted “to create the ideal resort that I’d want to be at with my family and with my friends,” and that the Albanian government had been very cooperative.
Prime Minister Rama has defended the project, saying the combined developments are worth up to five billion euros and accusing the protest movement of being driven by foreign interference rather than genuine public concern.
Speaking to CNN, Rama dismissed the scale of the unrest. “Just to clarify, you said protests all over Albania — that is untrue. There are no protests all over Albania,” he told a CNN journalist, adding that Albania was facing “a disinformation campaign” from “opponents and competitors interested in damaging the country’s image.”
In a separate statement carried by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency on June 3, Rama described the movement as “hybrid warfare.” “Those who have yet to comprehend this will not do so even through the explanations of law enforcement agencies,” he said. “It is universally acknowledged — and for this Albania is respected within NATO — that we possess one of the strongest defences against cyberterrorism.”
Iran’s foreign ministry rejected Rama’s accusations that Tehran was fuelling the unrest. Iranian spokesman Esmail Baqaei told the Albanian prime minister not to use others as a “scapegoat” and said Rama should listen to the anger of his own citizens, according to the Tirana Times.
The protests have spread well beyond Albania’s borders. According to BalkanWeb, solidarity rallies were held on June 14 in 17 cities across Europe and North America, including New York, Chicago, Toronto, Berlin, Vienna and Oslo, as well as in Melbourne, Australia, where thousands gathered on June 13 in support of the demonstrations in Tirana.
Albania is a candidate country for European Union membership, and opposition figures have argued that the manner in which the Kushner project was approved — without competitive tendering or meaningful public consultation — raises fundamental questions about the country’s commitment to rule of law standards required for accession. Sali Berisha, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, has called on Rama to resign, though protesters have also criticised Berisha, portraying both men as part of the same entrenched political establishment, according to Middle East Eye
