Revealed On 21 Jun 2026
1000’s of protesters have marched via Albania’s capital, Tirana, in one of many largest rallies but towards a luxurious resort venture linked to United States President Donald Trump that has grow to be a lightning rod for anger over alleged corruption.
Since late Could, demonstrators have gathered each night to oppose the deliberate development of a resort complicated tied to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, on a protected stretch of the Balkan nation’s coast.
Saturday’s march drew what gave the impression to be one of many greatest crowds for the reason that motion started, with many members of the Albanian diaspora travelling house to affix. Waving Albanian and US flags, protesters launched purple balloons and chanted “Albania is just not on the market,” a slogan projected onto the facade of the prime minister’s workplace.
“We aren’t towards the nation’s growth; we’re towards the vanity and lack of transparency surrounding tasks that have an effect on our lives,” mentioned Alma, a science pupil.
The Kushner-backed resort, together with one other deliberate growth on close by Sazan Island, would sit close to key breeding grounds for migratory birds within the Vjosa-Narta protected space, together with flocks of flamingos.
Environmental considerations have fused with wider anger at Prime Minister Edi Rama, whom protesters accuse of opaque offers alongside the coast. Many now say they’ll stay on the streets till he resigns.
Rama, who has stayed defiant, instructed a celebration assembly that he wouldn’t step down and argued that the controversy is pushed extra by Kushner’s identify and the “shadow of Trump” than by the venture itself.
