Plans for a luxury resort on Albania's Sazan island, backed by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, have ignited widespread protests across the Balkan nation. The development, part of a €1.4bn investment on the southern coast, has drawn anger from locals who view it as a symbol of government corruption and elite capture. Thousands have taken to the streets in what is being called the 'flamingo revolution', named after the threat to wildlife in the protected Pishë Poro-Narta reserve.
Cartographer Ina Shkurti, who grew up visiting the island, expressed outrage: 'Sazan is our only island. It's a small paradise that holds a special place in the hearts of Albanians. Having some rich couple come in, develop it, and then deny us access, would be a crime.' The protests, which began three weeks ago after bulldozers cleared forest in a conservation zone, have drawn participants from the Albanian diaspora, with many flying in from the US and Europe.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has refused to back down, describing the investment as vital for making Albania the Mediterranean's 'most attractive high-end tourist destination'. However, critics accuse his government of prioritising oligarch investors over public interest. Afrim Krasniqi, director of the Albanian Institute for Political Studies, warned: 'The government doesn't want to believe that all these people out on the streets are against it. This absence of dialogue is dangerous.'
Tensions escalated when protesters confronted private security contractors who erected a fence around the first development site. A local landowner was filmed being dragged handcuffed over rocky terrain, with police failing to intervene. The protests, leaderless and non-partisan, have caught both the government and EU off guard, raising fears of a deepening crisis in a country with little tradition of civic unrest.
