What began as environmental concern has exploded into street violence. The target this time is a luxury coastal resort linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Police fired water cannons and clashed with protesters in the Albanian capital on Wednesday during the fourth consecutive demonstration against a massive development project on the Adriatic coast. Protesters broke through a police cordon, after which officers used water cannons to disperse the crowd.
The government says the development would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and push for European Union membership. But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast, has drawn fierce opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The Project
The luxury project has two components: a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area, which is a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a former communist-era military base. The planned development includes hotels, apartments, villas, and a marina.
An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities. In an interview this week with a US podcaster, Ivanka Trump said they discovered the site by accident.
“We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it,” she said. “We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.”
The Protests
Since late May, excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees, and installing fencing. Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe have condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being “irreversibly destroyed.”
Protesters have carried cardboard cut-outs of pink flamingos — one of the protected migratory bird species in the Narta Lagoon area — at rallies in Tirana. Public anger grew after video showed an activist being dragged by a private security guard while demonstrating at the site.
The development is planned within a nature reserve and one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas, a key stopover for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.
The Government’s Position
Prime Minister Rama has committed to the venture, saying it would align with Albania’s ambition to become a major global tourism destination.
“Albania should not be a country that fears an extraordinary project like this one, where exceptional partners have come together to invest 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion),” Rama said. He added: “There is no chance for this investment to stop as long as I am here.”
Albania’s state anti-corruption agency has confirmed it opened an investigation related to the project but has not disclosed details. The government says the land earmarked for the project is privately owned, but competing claims have emerged questioning the privatization — a common type of legal dispute in the country.
A Cautionary Tale from Serbia
A similar project in Serbia offers a warning. In November, Serbia’s Parliament passed a special law to enable the building of a luxury complex in the capital, Belgrade, to be financed by an investment company linked to Kushner. The following month, Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime charged four people, including a government minister, with abuse of office and falsifying documents to help pave the way for the development.
Kushner later withdrew from the planned multi-million investment that would have replaced a sprawling, bombed-out military complex — a designated heritage zone whose legal protection was lifted by the former officials now on trial.
The Bottom Line
Violent protests have erupted in Albania over a luxury coastal resort project linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Police fired water cannons and clashed with demonstrators in the capital, Tirana, during the fourth consecutive protest. The $4.6 billion development, planned within a wildlife reserve and on a former military island, has drawn opposition from environmental groups who say protected habitats are being destroyed. Prime Minister Edi Rama has vowed the project will continue. A similar Kushner-linked project in Serbia collapsed after criminal charges were filed against government officials.
