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Were Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump the spark that ignited the revolution in Albania?

Politiko 2026-06-24 15:44:08

Were Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump the spark that ignited the revolution in

When Ivanka Trump jumped off a friend's yacht into the warm waters of the Adriatic Sea a few years ago and swam toward an uninhabited island looming on the horizon, she could not have known that a revolution was in the making. But that's exactly what seems to have happened in Albania, based on what happened next.

For weeks, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Tirana against plans by the US president's daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, to transform the 3,500-acre island of Sazani into an exclusive luxury resort with villas, a casino, a golf course, and high-end apartments.

The plans also include a second development facing the bay, next to a nature reserve where flamingos and other wildlife species live.

Ivanka Trump said last month on David Senra's podcast that she was "fascinated" by the island after discovering it by chance while on vacation.

“It hasn’t left our minds since,” she said. The project, with an estimated value of $4 billion, is reportedly being financed by Kushner and investors from the Gulf countries.

Protesters have held banners with the slogan "Albania is not for sale" and, in recent days, have entered the construction sites of other luxury development projects, damaging equipment and machinery.

What began as an expression of anger at the project, which was approved through an expedited procedure by Prime Minister Edi Rama and with little public oversight, has turned into broader protests against alleged government corruption, environmental degradation, and the elite that governs the country.

The “Flamingo Revolution,” so named because of the threat the project’s development poses to flamingo habitat and wildlife, shows no signs of slowing down after more than three weeks of protests.

A report from The Guardian newspaper on the ground described the situation in the country in strong tones: “Not since the fall of communism, more than three decades ago, has Albania been shaken by such great collective anger.”

The Albanian prime minister has rejected calls for his resignation, telling CNN that the project will not "pour concrete on flamingos' heads" and that Trump and Kushner are part of a broad group of international investors.

Meanwhile, the environmental organization "Protection and Conservation of the Natural Environment in Albania" (PPNEA) has stated that the project has already caused "serious" and "irreversible" ecological damage./Monitor

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