Albanians rise up against Kouchner's project

Protests in Albania against the construction of a luxury tourist complex, planned by a company linked to Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, could intensify after opponents of the project rejected the country's prime minister's offer to "discuss solutions."

Calls to block the $1,6 billion project, planned in an area long considered one of the most environmentally sensitive in the Mediterranean, are growing louder, with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama blaming the protests on a “hybrid war against Albania and disinformation.”

"We are in a hybrid war. Albania is under attack from enemies we know very well. It is under attack from strong competition from our part of the Mediterranean and thousands of fake online profiles created to generate this storm," Rama said.

Rama, in collaboration with Kouchner and his wife Ivanka Trump, intends to build a luxury resort on 1.400 hectares on the small island of Sazan and in the coastal village of Zvernec, in southern Albania, with hotels with a total of 10.000 rooms, as well as villas, apartments, swimming pools and yacht marinas.

The authorities have already fenced off that part of the coast with barbed wire, and the protest, which initially mobilized environmentalists and local residents, spread after footage of a brutal clash between private security and demonstrators was released.

Protesters gather in front of the government headquarters, carrying rubber flamingos and banners with the messages "The nation is not for sale" and "I don't want an Albania like Dubai."

This movement is unprecedented in Albania's post-communist history. Without the support of any political party, they are building an independent movement from below, based on citizen mobilization. They are mainly young people, most of them under 30, said Gresa Hasa, an expert on Albania and a doctoral candidate at the University of Graz in Austria

“There was a complete lack of transparency from start to finish,” Aleksandar Trajce, executive director of the country’s leading conservation organization, the Protection and Conservation of the Natural Environment of Albania (PPNEA), told the Guardian. “It’s not just unprecedented – it’s a complete breakdown of the rule of law, with no regard for society, no concern for the environment, no contractual permits, just bulldozers going into the field.”

"We haven't seen any public discussion or publicly available documentation regarding the permits, and so we're saying now: if they remove the bulldozers, remove the fence, and restore the habitats to the condition they were in, then we can start talking."

The alarm, he told the British newspaper, turned into public anger when workers began erecting a fence with a concrete base and barbed wire on top around the site near Zvernec, hired a private security company to guard it, and heavy machinery began destroying ancient dunes and Mediterranean pine forests to clear space for access roads.

“That’s when the locals got really angry,” he said. “People who own land there or work it suddenly couldn’t get to it… It’s now gone beyond an environmental issue. It’s a citizen issue. It’s much broader.”

This week, Albania's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office, SPAK, announced that it had launched an investigation into controversial amendments to the law adopted in 2024 relating to protected areas. The state anti-corruption prosecutor said it was investigating the ownership and legal status of land earmarked for the project, and had seized assets of individuals linked to the project.

Speaking to CNN, Rama denied that the protests had spread to the entire country, insisting that they were limited and that some media outlets had deliberately exaggerated public discontent.

Stating that many protesters are certainly guided by good intentions and are genuinely concerned about the environment, Rama said that they have been manipulated by false information circulating on the internet.

When asked about the corruption investigation, which was reported by the Politiko portal, Rama said it was “fake news.” He said the investigation only concerns one landowner who sold his land in a “completely transparent banking transaction” and not the entire investment.

The Albanian Prime Minister pointed out in an interview that, in the implementation of the project, "a group consisting not only of Kushner and Ivanka Trump but also of some other very reputable investors hired five of the best architects in the world."

"They are working side by side with top environmental engineers and sustainable development experts. One of the largest consulting companies in the world has also been hired to analyze the environmental impact," said Rama, who verbally clashed several times during the interview with a CNN reporter who repeatedly asked him about the project for the complex.

When asked by a journalist whether the project would continue, Rama replied: I repeat, there is no project yet, there is no project yet, and to the CNN journalist's remark that he "just wants to clarify it", Rama replied: "Do you want to listen, or just talk?"

The project in the area of ​​Sazan and the village of Zvernec has become one of the most controversial initiatives in Albania and has sparked debates about nature protection, investments in tourism, the future of the Albanian coast, and above all, corruption.

“This movement is unprecedented in Albania’s post-communist history,” Gresa Hasa, an expert on Albania and a doctoral candidate at the University of Graz in Austria, told Politiko. “Without the support of any political party, they are building an independent movement from below, based on citizen mobilization. They are mostly young people, most of them under 30.”

While more people have taken to social media to support the protests over the past week, a smaller number have been spreading disinformation online, falsely claiming that the land has been sold to Israel, sometimes citing Kushner's Jewish background as evidence of a hidden political agenda. There was little visible support for such claims at the protest itself, according to Politico.

Hasa said anti-Semitism is not a hallmark of the movement. “The vast majority of the objections are directed at the project and the decision-making process that goes with it,” she said. “People don’t care about Jared Kushner’s religious or ethnic identity.”

The protest turned tense on Wednesday evening after demonstrators broke through metal barricades that had initially blocked the road near the prime minister's office, despite police attempts to push them back with water cannons.

The investors say they will develop the project responsibly. “Our focus remains on responsible management, environmental improvement, job creation and creating long-term value for local communities. We respect ongoing public and institutional processes,” said Asher Abeshera, president of Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, which is developing the plans in partnership with Kushner’s firm Affinity Partners.

Kouchner announced plans to build a resort in 2024 as part of a broader investment that included the former General Staff building in Belgrade. Last year, he abandoned the project in Serbia after street protests against it.