Albania 'Flamingo Revolution' rages against Kushner land grab

Protests against a luxury resort being built on vital wetlands in Albania are now well into their third week – and they’ve attracted the ire of Albanian PM Edi Rama. He denounced the opponents of the Trump-family-linked project as exhibiting a “fascist mentality”, and denied the building works’ massive environmental impacts.

On 3 June, the Canary reported on the anger against building works in the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape and the island of Sazan. At the time, the protests had lasted for three days. Now, however, the so-called ‘Flamingo Revolution’ has built momentum into a wider critique of Rama’s leadership.

Saturday 13 June alone saw between 100,000 and 200,000 protesters take to Albania’s streets. Politico described it as the largest event of the current spate of demonstrations thus far. For context, that’s just below a twelfth of the county’s 2.75 million-strong population.

Albania rages against neocolonial intrusion

The Vjosa-Narta protected landscape is the last remaining free-flowing river delta in the Mediterranean. It plays host to over 200 migratory bird species and 70 endangered species. These include monk seals, sea turtles, and the flamingos from which the protests take their name.

Now, however, a construction undertaking linked to Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner threatens that wetland. The $1.6bn luxury tourism project involves bulldozing the fragile ecosystem to make way for as many as 10,000 hotel rooms and villas. Forbes also explained that the hotels are just one piece of the puzzle:

Kushner’s planned developments in Albania are estimated at more than $5 billion combined, and the resorts mark only one part of Kushner’s broader effort to launch international development projects during his father-in-law President Donald Trump’s second term. (Previous reports link Kushner’s planned Albania resort with his private equity fund Affinity Partners, but a representative for the project told Forbes that Affinity is not involved.)

PM Edi Rama has strenuously denied that the development is destroying the fragile ecosystem. In doing so, he resorted to distinctly Trumpian claims of ‘fake news’, calling them:

one of the greatest falsehoods inflated beyond all imagination.

However, eyewitness accounts have confirmed otherwise. Ariel Brunner, the Europe and Central Asia Director of BirdLife International, wrote of attending an environmental preservation conference nearby:

We took our colleagues to the Vjosa delta, the last free-flowing river delta in the Mediterranean, and a refuge for more than 200 bird species, including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, nesting loggerhead sea turtles and the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal. We thought we had come to inspect an airport built in open defiance of the law in the middle of the marshes.

To our horror, we walked straight into a vast new construction site in the very heart of the protected area. We saw excavators tearing up the beach. Lorries dumping gravel and cutting roads through ancient dunes and pine forest. A drill at work on the hillside. No licences posted, no companies named, no environmental permit of any kind.

‘Vile spectacle of gossip’

Albania’s government granted preliminary approval to the Trump-Kushner project back in December 2024. That date rings alarm bells – it was just one month after Donald Trump was elected for his second term. As such, the development attracted accusations of an attempt by Rama to strengthen ties with the Republican regime.

Whilst Rama has denied allegations of corruption and environmental vandalism since they first emerged, his recent rhetoric has taken on a different tone. Over the weekend of 13 June, the Albanian PM began to accuse to growing protest movement of exhibiting a “fascist mentality”.

On his podcast (translated by Euronews), Rama paid lip service to the “many” protesters “with good intentions”. However, he likened others to Nazi Germany, arguing that they exhibited a thought process:

that says: ‘Albania belongs to Albanians,’ meaning that everyone else is not welcome.

Rama also denied the demonstrators’ accusations that he was putting their country up for sale. He highlighted that the developments were taking place solely on government-owned or private lands. As such, the government will maintain ownership of Sazan Island and receive shares in the profits.

Likewise, the PM also turned his ire on “vile spectacle of gossip” in news reporting on the environmental destruction, writing that:

ANYONE WHO TRIES TO DRAG ALBANIA BACK DOWN WILL NEVER SUCCEED AGAIN.

‘It’s going to be a beautiful project’

However, it appears that it’s Rama’s own government that is in danger of ‘dragging Albania down’. Whilst the southeastern European country was well on its way to joining the EU in 2030, the Trump-Kushner project has thrown that hope into jeopardy.

Back in 2024, Albania changed its laws in order to make tourism developments easier on ecologically-protected lands. This opened the door for the current construction in the Vjosa-Narta.

On 9 June, European Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier warned that these changes – and the ensuing destruction of the Vjosa-Narta – could breach the environmental standards expected of any country joining the EU.

However, in spite of that warning and the ongoing protests, Rama remains hellbent on ploughing forwards. He told Reuters that:

It’s going to be a beautiful project and we’re going to ⁠do it and we’re going to be proud to contribute to Europe.

The Albanian prime minister claimed that he isn’t selling his country out, but that’s exactly what he’s done and more. For the sake of $5bn, he’s endangered a unique and precious ecosystem, public confidence in his government, and Albania’s bid to join the EU itself – and further enriched the Trump family to boot.

Featured image via the Canary