Albania protests Trump-linked luxury resort over protected coastline

Barbed-wire fences around a luxury resort site on Albania’s Adriatic coast helped ignite a backlash that has spread from the beach at Narta Lagoon to the streets of Tirana. The project, linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, has become a test of who controls Albania’s coastline, who benefits from development, and how far the government will go to clear the way.

The plan centers on two sensitive sites: the Narta Lagoon area near Vlora, a protected wetland and wildlife reserve, and Sazan, a nearby uninhabited island that once served as a communist-era military base. The proposed complex is described as including hotels, apartments, villas, a marina and about 10,000 hotel rooms. Environmental advocates say the footprint overlaps with habitat for flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites, putting one of Albania’s most important biodiversity areas at risk.

Opposition surged in late May after developers erected fences topped with barbed wire that cut off beach access for locals and visitors. Thousands of people demonstrated in Tirana on June 4, June 9 and June 10, while protests also spread to Zvernec and other coastal areas. Demonstrators carried cardboard flamingos and banners reading “Albania Is Not for Sale,” turning a local land dispute into a broader challenge to Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government.

The anger did not stop at the resort fence. On June 13, about 200 protesters tore down fencing at another coastal development site in Rrjoll, underscoring how quickly the fight has widened beyond one project. Protesters from Albania and the diaspora, including Albanians living in neighboring Greece and elsewhere in Europe, have joined the rallies, giving the campaign a wider nationalist and anti-corruption edge.

Rama has defended the project as a way for Albania to compete in the high-end tourism market as it seeks European Union membership. He says the lagoon itself will not be touched and says the final proposal has not yet been submitted, with the environmental study still incomplete. Critics argue that the project is moving forward through privileged treatment, including special investor status for the Kushner-linked firm and, in another nearby coastal case, similar treatment for a separate developer.

The legal pressure has deepened. Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors opened an investigation into changes made in 2024 to protected-area status and land ownership that helped open the door to development. Authorities also froze the bank accounts of Albania Land Development, the landholding company tied to the resort plan, as part of a broader property-fraud probe. SPAK, Albania’s Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime, created with EU and U.S. backing in the 2019 justice reforms, is now at the center of the scrutiny. European Union officials are watching the case closely as a measure of Albania’s readiness for membership, while calls against the resort have grown into demands for Rama’s resignation and early elections.