‘We Want a New Albania’: Protests against Jared Kushner-backed Resort Turn Anger on Government

This screenshot is from this Guardian article. | Thousands of people protesting outside the prime minister’s office in Tirana on Saturday. | Photograph: Vlasov Sulaj/Nur Photo/Shutterstock
THE GUARDIAN: Opposition to plans for ‘small paradise’ island of Sazan becomes wave of dissent against establishment

For Ina Shkurti, like so many Albanians, the island of Sazan has played an outsized role. As a child she bathed in its “always calm and emerald green” waters, as a teenager it figured in her dreams and as an adult it was an indelible part of the memory and desire that drew her back, every summer, to Vlore, her home town across the sea.

What Shkurti never imagined was that plans to build a mega-resort on Sazan – one of two luxurious complexes on Albania’s southern coast backed by Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner – would trigger a revolt, an uprising that has convulsed the Balkan state in a spasm of disgust over the perceived excesses of “a rotten oligarchic class” just as it hopes to complete accession talks with the EU.

“Am I outraged? Of course I am,” the cartographer said as the contours of the uninhabited outcrop came into view from a speedboat scudding towards its shores. “Sazan is our only island. It’s a small paradise that holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Albanians. Having some rich couple come in, develop it, and then deny us access, would be a crime.”

Not since the collapse of communism, more than three decades ago, has Albania been shaken by such collective fury. At 32, Shkurti, whose family emigrated to the US when she was 11, is typical of the tens of thousands, both in and outside the country, who have taken to the streets in what has become known as the “flamingo revolution” because of the threat posed by the proposed resorts to wildlife and delicate ecosystems on the sites.

“This government no longer represents us,” she said. “It has chosen to represent oligarch investors like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. These protests are not going to stop, even if they’re no longer exclusively about them.”

Every day, she said, friends from Albania’s diaspora were flying in to join the rallies. In the biggest so far, thousands converged on Tirana at the weekend, many travelling from the US and other parts of Europe, to add their voices to the wave of dissent. » | Helena Smith in Vlore and Tirana | Monday, June 22, 2026

Kushner’s Sazan Plan: Barefoot Self-discovery or Modern Land Grab?| Soumaya Ghannoushi | MEE Opinion

Jun 9, 2026 | Soumaya Ghannoushi, a writer and expert in Middle East politics, argues that Jared Kushner's multi-billion-dollar plan to build a luxury resort on Sazan Island exposes a significant disconnect between elite privilege and the real-world implications of sovereignty.

Ghannoushi points out that what Ivanka Trump describes as an innocent "barefoot discovery" of an untouched "mysterious Mediterranean paradise" is actually a calculated venture supported by foreign sovereign wealth funds and facilitated by local authorities that are compliant with these plans.

She argues that Kushner is attempting to reduce sovereign geography to merely a picturesque backdrop, drawing a troubling parallel to his controversial real estate ambitions regarding the "waterfront potential of Gaza" during Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged strip.


This is a fantastic synopsis. Bravo! — Mark

Why Ivanka’s Albanian Dream Is a Protester's Nightmare • FRANCE 24 English

Jun 5, 2026 | Erisa Kryeziu is an Albanian journalist for the independent media outlet Citizens.AL, based in Albania. She reported on the ground on the protests against the construction activity.

When is the civilized world going to be free of the Grifter-in-Chief and his family of grifters, the Trump chumps if you will? If you are anything like I am, you are sick to death of hearing about that corrupt family and the family’s little helpers. The news is full of Trump this and Trump that. The whole thing is so damn TIRESOME. The pain that those American DORKS unleashed upon the world when they voted for that orange fascist is unbelievable! It is high time that Americans start to try and undo their dangerous experiment. Electing a businessman into high political office is NEVER a good idea. A businessman’s raison d’être is ALWAYS the bottom line: profit. And so it has been with Trump at the helm. The profit, of course, is always for him, his family, and his little helpers. However, a sound, well-run economy is far, far more than this. A sound, well-run economy should ALWAYS be run for the benefit of all. Such a concept is totally and utterly alien to people like Trump and his chumps.

This Albanian nightmare is proof of corruption at the top — at the top of Albanian society, and corruption at the top of American society. STOP this DAMN CORRUPTION! — © Mark Alexander

Albanian Inmate Numbers in UK a ‘Mosaic of Lies’ Used to Push Brexit | Albanian Prime Minister

Sep 14, 2025 | "Where the hell you will find the people to build your houses, to serve you the coffee, to be your taxi drivers, to be your truck drivers?"

The idea that there are a high number of Albanians in UK prisons was a lie to convince British people to leave the EU, says Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.