In Albania, Protesters Rally Against Multi-Billion-Dollar Luxury Resort Backed by Jared Kushner

The light of 6:00 p.m. casts a glow on the facade of the government building in the capital city of Albania, Tirana. In front of the building housing the office of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, traffic flows along a detour marked by barriers. A river of people marching from Skanderbeg Square is gathering here in front of the building, waving red flags bearing a two-headed black eagle in the center—the country’s historic symbol, associated with the national hero George Castriota Skanderbeg, after whom the square was also named. There are families, elderly people, young people, children in strollers, a soundtrack of whistles and drums. A red staircase appears in the middle of the street, carried by some protesters: they have a microphone, a speaker, and a generator to power it all. One by one, students, retirees, and activists climb those few steps to address the crowd. The Albanian revolution begins like this, with a red staircase placed in the street in front of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s office.

“We’re not just defending the lagoon,” one of the protesters declares. “We’re defending our future: Albania is not for sale.”

That is the cry of those who grew up watching most of their peers emigrate, hoping to turn the tide for their country’s future. Many of the young men and women who have taken to the streets were born after 1992, the fall of communism in the country. They are the first generation to grow up with the European horizon in view, and refuse to accept decisions made without transparency. At the center of today’s protest is one such decision: The green light for a luxury resort backed by Affinity Partners, a company led by none other than Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump and the administration’s special envoy for peace.

Rama has shown full-chested support for the multi-billion-dollar project on the country’s western coast, beginning groundwork earlier this month. The site of the future resort, which will include the construction of hotels, apartments, a marina, and more, is located between Sazan Island and the Zvërnec protected area, between the Narta Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. The area is home to a wildlife reserve, and activists have decried the development’s impact on the environment and several endangered bird and animal species.

“This protest should push the whole world to take to the streets against the global elite. For peace, justice, and respect for human beings,” another protester says. Those at the rally speak of wages, denouncing corruption and investments that are selling out their country, and the increasingly unaffordable rents. “For years we were told that progress meant investment, new hotels, construction sites, the race toward Europe,” Lorena, a 21-year-old literature student, tells Vanity Fair Italia as she and others pick up trash left on the street by protesters. “But who is really benefiting from this development today? No Albanian citizen. It’s as if this country isn’t ours anymore.” These protests come just one year after the Socialist Party’s fourth consecutive victory in Albania. We take a taxi to Vlorë, about 150 kilometers away.

“I have eleven cousins and they’ve all left: Italy, Germany, England. I wanted to leave too, but I wasn’t lucky enough to make it. I went to every demonstration until yesterday,” says Alion, 46, as he drives. “I hope the students become a real movement; only then will Rama not be able to ignore us. I work every day and have nothing: a 500-euro salary, a rental I share with friends, no property. They’ve left us with nothing.” For Alion, the problem isn’t just the Kushner resort but the mafia and corruption throughout the country. “A close friend of mine had returned to Tirana from England because he wanted to start his own business here, but he left: as soon as word got out, they came asking him for money to let him do it. It happens everywhere here.”