Tens of thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets of the capital, Tirana, in what has become the country's largest wave of protests in recent years, triggered by a planned luxury resort linked to Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump in a protected coastal wetland. Demonstrators chanting "Albania is not for sale" stretched half a mile down one of Tirana's main boulevards outside Prime Minister Edi Rama's office on Wednesday, carrying inflatable flamingos and satirical placards in what has been dubbed the "Flamingo Revolution."

The controversy centres on a proposed €5 billion ($5.8bn) resort development near Sazan Island and the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape on Albania's southern Adriatic coast. The delta of the Vjosa River — declared Europe's first wild river national park in 2023 — hosts flamingos, loggerhead sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, Eurasian otters and roughly 12% of the country's wintering waterbirds. Unpublished conservation data shows 279 of the 2,529 recorded species in the delta are internationally threatened. Heavy machinery and fencing appeared at the Pishë Poro–Nartë protected area last month without a completed environmental impact assessment or planning permission, and the installation of a fence around the Zvernec site — later removed after public outcry — ignited the unrest. Ivanka Trump has spoken publicly about her vision for the site, describing it as "the culmination of all of my experience in real estate" after visiting by yacht. Kushner's investment firm, Affinity Partners, says it is not formally involved, with investors participating "in their personal capacity."

Rama, who has been in power since 2013, has refused to cancel the project, insisting an environmental impact assessment will be completed and that development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. But the protests have expanded well beyond the ecological issue, channelling deep frustration over corruption, opaque decision-making and a sense that the government repeatedly overrides public interest for elite-driven projects. Albania's parliament weakened conservation laws in 2024 to permit five-star hotel construction even within protected areas, and redrew protected-area boundaries in 2022 to allow construction of the nearby Vlora airport. Satirical placards targeting both Rama and the main opposition Democratic Party leader, Sali Berisha, reflect a broader disillusionment: "Rama to prison! Berisha to prison!" reads one. As one media freedom analyst observed, the protest memes "expose the contradiction, arrogance or absurdity that protesters perceive in the powerful."

The episode has drawn international attention at a sensitive diplomatic moment. The European Commission warned this week that Albania — one of several Western Balkan countries the EU has said it could admit by 2030 — must "act without delay" in complying with environmental rules and should "refrain from actions that could undermine the fulfilment of the closing benchmark" for accession. Ninety-six Albanian civil society organisations simultaneously wrote to parliament demanding repeal of the 2024 amendment loosening conservation protections. For conservationists, the stakes are straightforward. "If you want to see the Mediterranean as it used to be, before it was wrecked by tourism, this is one of the last spots where you would find it," said Aleksandër Trajçe, director of PPNEA, Albania's largest conservation group. "The birds will fly away, for sure."