Mass protests erupt in Albania against Kushner-linked resort projects

There is a nonzero chance that Jared Kushner will play a pivotal and entirely accidental role in bringing down the government of Albania. Over the last several weeks, the Balkan nation has been roiled by protests stretching from the capital, Tirana, to rural coastlines and cities around the world.

Origins of the Demonstrations

The demonstrations were sparked by the government's approval of projects linked to Kushner, including:

• A 10,000-bed luxury resort near the city of Vlorë on the Narta Lagoon
• Development on protected wildlands in Zvërnec
• Plans to turn Sazan Island—part of a national park—into a smaller coastal enclave for the wealthy

On Saturday, some 200,000 people turned out as anger spread from the Kushner project to other luxury developments. Roughly 200 protesters in northwestern Albania tore down barbed-wire fencing around the construction site of a non-Kushner-linked five-star resort on the Adriatic Coast. As one participant told Reuters, they were demanding "compensation" for 200 local families whose "land has been seized."

Environmental Concerns and the "Flamingo Revolution"

International coverage of the protests in Albania—a country relatively unfamiliar to many in the United States—has focused largely on environmental concerns and the projects' ties to the Trump family. The fledgling Kushner resorts threaten pristine wilderness and critical ecosystems that sustain:

• A rare colony of the world's largest freshwater birds
• Endangered Albanian water frogs
• Loggerhead turtles
• Flamingos, whose last remaining habitat in Albania could be threatened

But the "Flamingo Revolution," as the wide-ranging, horizontalist movement has become known, is about much more than flora, fauna, or Donald Trump. As Albania vies to become a top tourist destination and a member of the European Union, the ongoing protests aim to upend its political system.

"At the core of this protest is not just environmental issues," said Gresa Hasa, a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Law and the Center for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz. "This is a fight for freedom and democracy, and a future where the resources and the state works for all of us and not just for some of us, and where we are not excluded from our own beaches and public spaces."

Political Demands

In addition to halting the developments on Zvërnec and Sazan Island, protesters are demanding:

• The resignation of Socialist Party Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has been in power since 2013
• Action against opposition leader and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha

A member of the Democratic Party, Berisha was under house arrest until last November as a result of corruption charges. "It's called the Socialist Party of Albania," Hasa clarified of Rama's party, "but has nothing to do with socialism."

Both Rama and Berisha have supported the developments in question as they look to cozy up to Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, as a means of endearing themselves to the U.S. president. Last week, the Trump administration lifted restrictions against Berisha imposed by the Biden administration.

Rama's Role

Rama has played a more active role. He had a chance dinner meeting with Ivanka Trump and Kushner in southern Albania. Months later, the president's son-in-law approached him in Davos about investing in the country's coastline. Rama has championed the project ever since.

Just before Trump's inauguration, the Albanian government granted Atlantic Incubation Partners—a firm linked to Kushner's Affinity Partners—the status of a "strategic investor." The Narta Lagoon resort is slated to be officially developed by the Netherlands-registered Zvërnec South Adriatic Development, an offshore trust that reports have linked to Kushner, Qatari billionaires, and a string of questionable entities.