Protests have swept Albania since 23 May over a government-backed plan to build a luxury resort in a protected coastal area. The project is led by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, who secured a building permit from the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Dozens of demonstrators have been arrested.
Antisemitic undercurrents have also surfaced at the protests, where posters of Adolf Hitler and anti-Israel slogans have appeared among the movement’s imagery.
The resort would cover the uninhabited island of Sazan and an adjacent protected area near the village of Zvernec. Kushner's company paid $1.4bn for the island and a further $4.7bn for the portion of protected coastline, with his wife Ivanka Trump having already declared the island private.
Excavators Move In
"Since late May, excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area in order to open access routes, dig into the sand and have begun clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing", Maira Butt reported for the Independent.
Speaking to Reuters on the evening of 8 June, Prime Minister Rama insisted that the protests would not disrupt construction and that the resort would be open to its first guests before the end of the decade. He also disclosed that he had first met the project's investors in 2021.
Rama has acknowledged that the environmental impact assessment has not yet been carried out and will be completed alongside construction – a sequence that critics say renders any findings effectively meaningless. Against that backdrop, the protests show little sign of abating.
"We are getting bigger and we are here until he resigns. Not only for biodiversity but for every injustice we face", a protester told Reuters, a reference to the prime minister's 13 years in office.
What began on 23 May near Zvernec has since spread to the capital and to Albanian communities abroad. The resort project lit the fuse, but the protests have drawn on deeper frustrations.
Kushner’s camp, for its part, says the development would bring up to €1.4bn (approximately $1.5bn) to the Albanian economy and create around 1,000 jobs in construction and resort operations. The investor has described the complex as a vehicle for establishing Albania as a sought-after Mediterranean destination.
Protected in Name Only
The protest movement has taken its name from one of the species most at risk: the flamingo. But the Flamingo Revolution, as it has come to be known, is fighting for an entire ecosystem. The wetlands and lagoons of the affected area are also home to seals, Dalmatian pelicans, sea turtles and around 70 other animal species.
That ecosystem enjoyed stronger protection until recently. The Pishe Poro-Narta area takes its name from the pine forest stretching between the villages of Poro and Narta, and held nature reserve status until October 2022, when the Tirana government downgraded it to a protected area and cut its size from 21,000 to 16,000 hectares.
In October 2025, the Albanian parliament changed the law on protected areas to allow hotel construction, provided the hotels are classified as "exceptional" and carry a five-star rating or above. No public debate preceded the vote, and conservationists' warnings went unheeded.
The project has exposed a rare point of consensus between government and opposition. The construction is backed by both Rama's Socialists and the opposition Democratic Party of Albania, led by Sali Berisha, leaving protesters with no institutional ally. Their slogans reflect as much: "Rama to jail, Berisha to jail" and "Resignation, not dialogue".
The European Commission added its voice on 7 June, warning that Tirana's actions were incompatible with the EU Birds and Habitats Directives and were pulling Albania further from Union membership. Greece has also weighed in, citing concern for the significant ethnic Greek minority in the region. At least one Greek national has been injured by security forces during the protests.
A Darker Turn
By Kushner’s own account, the project began with a 2021 cruise on the Adriatic, a conversation with Rama aboard Matt Rothschild’s yacht and the beginnings of a deal.
The resort is being developed under the banner of Atlantic Incubation Partners, an entity affiliated with Kushner's private investment firm, Affinity Partners. According to the New York Times, Affinity Partners has directed more than 75% of some $5bn into Phoenix Financial, Revolut and Israeli insurance companies since its founding.
Parts of the protest movement have featured openly antisemitic imagery. Critics have accused the Tirana government of acting in Israel’s interests, both in connection with the project and more broadly. That charge has been sharpened by Kushner’s past business ties to George Soros, Africa Israel Investments and Israeli companies.
That backdrop has found dark expression on the streets. One banner, a parody of an Israeli slogan, reads "Great Albania was promised to us 3,000 years ago" and was displayed alongside a poster bearing Adolf Hitler's face. Another depicts the island of Sazan with Hitler gazing down from the clouds above the words "I warned you all".
The Albanian-American outlet The Atlantic photographed demonstrators holding a poster reading “Albania to the Albanians, death to the traitors”, alongside four maps depicting Albania being progressively absorbed by Israel – an allusion to maps purporting to show the loss of Palestinian territory over time.
The Israeli ambassador to Albania said the banners on display reminded her of Germany in the 1930s.
The movement has no central leadership and draws from several groups, but its demands are broadly united: an immediate halt to construction, action to prevent ecological damage and a formal review of the legality of the government's permitting processes. Above all, the protesters want Rama gone.
That demand carries a democratic complication. The most recent parliamentary elections were held in May 2025, at which Rama's party won 52% of the vote on a turnout of just over 40%.