As Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama appeared at a rally of jubilant supporters in Tirana on Friday, thousands of people were already filling a nearby boulevard, echoing daily calls for his resignation.
Opposition to a planned luxury resort linked to US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner has sparked major daily protests for nearly two weeks in the Balkan country.
In late May, local opposition to barbed-wire fences and bulldozers appearing on a quiet beach in the coastal area of Zvrnec – about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tirana – exploded into a national movement, after videos of violent clashes between demonstrators and private security went viral online.
For Fadel Dia, one of the protesters, the luxury resorts were “just a trigger” and in reality “there are many reasons why we are demonstrating here today”.
“For 36 years we have been governed by corrupt governments, one after the other. None of these governments have done anything for the Albanian people. They have only enriched themselves and robbed us,” the 26-year-old IT employee told AFP.
But in the face of one of the most direct challenges to his nearly 13-year leadership, including constant calls for his resignation and chants of “Albania is not for sale” outside his office every evening, Rama has remained defiant.
“Albania has never been for sale”, he declared to the faithful of the Socialist Party, as his party marks 35 years since its establishment.
Thousands of Rama’s party supporters carrying Albanian and European Union flags greeted his speech with applause.
Just a short walk away, protesters marched under banners calling for his ouster, while calls for an end to the resort project echoed through government buildings.
“Many reasons to protest”
Although fences and construction equipment disappeared after the clashes, protests have turned into nightly rallies of thousands, despite assurances from Rama that the development has not yet been approved.
In addition to calling for the cancellation of the Zvernec project, protesters are also demanding the removal of laws that have allowed the government to fast-track projects — such as Kushner’s other planned development on nearby Sazan Island.
With both resorts planned near a key breeding area for migratory birds – including hundreds of flamingos – the developments have become a flashpoint for frustrations over perceived corruption in the country.
Senior figures in Rama’s government and the head of the largest opposition party are already facing corruption trials in separate cases.
And the special prosecution for fighting corruption and organized crime (SPAK) is investigating funds used to obtain land titles and sell them to investors for the development of Zvrnec.
“We have thousands of problems and that’s why they are on the road. What happened in Zvrnec was just the turning point,” 46-year-old guide Arben Kola told AFP.
– ‘Nothing to worry about’ –
Rama has steered between underestimating the protesters as misinformed and dismissing the movement as being supported from outside.
“There is no reason to worry as long as there is no project,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Montenegro last week.
Although specific details about Zvernec and Sazan’s plans remain sketchy, rave descriptions from Ivanka Trump and renderings of the proposed resort posted by Kushner have been circulating for years.
Negotiations to redevelop the uninhabited island of Sazan – once a secret communist military base and currently held by Albania’s defense department – are still ongoing.
According to public records seen by AFP, the Zvrnec project, valued at $4.6 billion, appears to be supported mainly by Qatar-based investors, while the Sazan project is valued at $1.4 billion.
Rama insisted that “no agreement has been reached for Sazan” and that “no strategic investor status has been given for the most important investment in the history of Albania”.
“Negotiations have been going on for a long time. These delays are due to the fact that we represent the interests of the Republic of Albania”, said Rama.
But in the streets of Tirana, people expressed little faith in Rama’s words.
“Zvrenec is a protected area. And they are trying to build a resort, and the problem is not that they are trying to build a resort, but the problem is the lack of transparency, accountability to people,” Kaltrina Hyka from the environmental NGO ECO Albania told AFP.
