"Albania Is Not for Sale" - Inside the Growing Revolt Against Jared Kushner's $4 Billion Coastal Resort

Jun 4
8 min read

There is a stretch of coastline in southern Albania that most of the world has never heard of. It sits in Vlorë County, where the Adriatic Sea meets a system of lagoons, pine forests, and quiet sandy beaches that remained completely untouched through decades of harsh communist rule. Flamingos rest there. Mediterranean monk seals swim through the waters. Sea turtles nest on the shores. Ornithologists from across Europe travel to the Vjosa-Narta Protected Area specifically to observe migratory birds pausing on their annual journey between Africa and the continent.

As of late May 2026, excavators began moving in.

What is happening right now in Albania is one of the most globally searched stories of the week - a collision of Trump family business interests, environmental law, anti-corruption investigations, and mass public protest in a small Balkan nation that most people couldn't find on a map a month ago. Thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets for days running, holding signs that read "Albania is not for sale" and cardboard cutouts of pink flamingos. A criminal investigation has been opened. Fifteen protesters have been arrested. And at the centre of all of it is a $4 billion luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

How It Started - On a Friend's Boat

The origin story of this project, as Ivanka Trump herself told it in an interview with podcaster David Senra this week, is almost charming in its casualness.

"We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim," she said. "Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the island."

The island she's referring to is Sazan - an uninhabited, former communist military base off Albania's southern Adriatic coast, now classified as part of the Karaburun-Sazan Marine National Park, home to some of the most endangered marine species in the Mediterranean. Surrounded by crystal-clear water and largely untouched for half a century, it is, by any environmental measure, one of the most ecologically significant undeveloped islands left in the Mediterranean Sea.

Kushner announced his plans to transform it into a luxury tourism destination in August 2024. His investment firm, Affinity Partners - set up after he left his role as senior White House adviser at the end of Trump's first term - laid out a vision for an ultra-luxury resort complex, with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama later confirming that plans could include up to 10,000 hotel rooms.

In early 2026, Kushner and Ivanka visited the site in person. Ivanka was later photographed having dinner with Rama alongside a team of architects.

The project was given the green light.

The Law That Made It Possible

Before Kushner could legally build anything in a protected nature reserve, Albania had a problem - the law. Albanian legislation, like most European environmental regulations, does not ordinarily permit large-scale construction inside protected wildlife areas.

That changed in 2024 with the passage of what critics quickly labelled the "Kushner Law" - officially known as Law 21/2024. The legislation, pushed through by Rama's government, allows construction of five-star hotels or higher-rated resorts anywhere in the country, including in protected natural areas. The timing, coming shortly after Kushner's announcement of his Albania investment plans, was not lost on opposition politicians or environmental groups.

More than 40 environmental organisations from 28 countries signed a letter to Rama and Environment Minister Sofjan Jaupaj urging the government to halt the project. The groups, including the Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) and the Mediterranean Center for Environmental Monitoring (MedCEM), expressed what they called "serious concerns" about construction across 45 hectares of Sazan - arguing that any large-scale development would cause irreversible damage to ecosystems that have remained intact for generations.

Their warnings went unheeded. In late May 2026, the machinery moved in.

What the Construction Is Doing Right Now

Since the final days of May, witnesses at the site have reported excavators and heavy equipment entering the Vjosa-Narta area, opening access routes through the protected zone, digging into the sand, clearing land between pine trees, and installing fencing across sections of the nature reserve.

Environmental groups from Albania and across Europe have condemned what is being described as active destruction of protected habitat. One prominent local organisation charged that long-protected ecosystems are being "irreversibly destroyed."

The Vjosa-Narta Protected Area is not a marginal wildlife corridor - it is a critical staging point for migratory birds travelling the Adriatic Flyway between Europe and Africa. Scientists describe the area as a biodiversity hotspot with flamingos, pelicans, Mediterranean monk seals, migratory birds numbering in the hundreds of species, and sea turtle nesting beaches. Ornithologist Jon Vorpsi, who works with local NGO PPNEA, has been monitoring the site for years. His assessment of what the development will mean is blunt.

"In 10 years this place will be a grey place with concrete," he told Reuters.

Three Days of Protests - and Growing

The Albanian public's response has been swift and sustained.

Demonstrations began in the villages of Zvërnec and Nartë in Vlorë County in late May, after a confrontation between protesters and private security guards at the construction site went viral - video circulating online showed an activist being physically dragged away by a security employee. The footage lit a fuse.

By 1 June, protests had moved to the capital Tirana, with crowds gathering outside the Prime Minister's office. The chants grew louder - "Albania belongs to Albanians," "Cancel the project," and "Hands off Vjosa-Narta." Demonstrators carried cardboard flamingos and banners with the faces of Kushner and Ivanka Trump. By day three, 3 June, the protests were still growing, with no sign of the crowds dispersing.

Fifteen protesters have been subjected to criminal proceedings. Two private security employees are under investigation following the violent confrontation at the site.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries commented on the broader pattern of Trump family overseas business deals this week, though it is the Albanian streets - not Washington DC - where the pushback has been loudest.

The Anti-Corruption Investigation

On 2 June, Albania's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office - known by its Albanian acronym SPAK - confirmed it had opened an investigation related to the project.

SPAK has not disclosed the full details of what it is investigating, but the agency is specifically tasked with probing corruption and organised crime in Albania. The investigation covers, at minimum, the funds used for acquiring land titles connected to the development, according to reporting by Axios and PBS News.

This is not the first time a Kushner-linked project in the Balkans has attracted legal scrutiny. In Serbia, a planned development at a former military headquarters in Belgrade - another Affinity Partners project announced at the same time as the Albania plans - eventually saw Kushner withdraw from the investment after the Serbian government faced its own legal trouble. In December 2024, Serbia's prosecutor for organised crime charged four people, including a government minister, with abuse of office and falsifying documents to facilitate that project. The parallels are not subtle.

Albania's Bigger Political Picture

To understand why this is happening, you need to understand the position Rama's government is in.

Albania has 450 kilometres of Adriatic and Ionian coastline - coastline that remained almost entirely undeveloped during the decades of Enver Hoxha's isolationist communist regime. That is both an extraordinary natural inheritance and, for a country that ranks among Europe's poorer nations, an obvious source of economic potential.

Rama has staked part of his government's identity on attracting foreign capital and positioning Albania as an upmarket tourist destination. He has also been pushing hard for Albania to join the European Union - a process that requires demonstrating rule of law, transparency, and alignment with EU environmental standards.

The Kushner project sits in uncomfortable tension with all three of those ambitions simultaneously. Environmentally, it risks damaging exactly the kind of biodiversity hotspots that EU accession assessments look closely at. Legally, the special legislation passed to enable it looks, to outside observers, like exactly the kind of bespoke rule-writing for powerful investors that EU assessors are trained to notice. And politically, mass street protests and an anti-corruption investigation make the project a liability rather than an asset.

Critics have called for Rama's resignation. He has defended the development as legal and environmentally compliant. As of today, he has shown no sign of backing down.

The Serbia Comparison

The pattern being drawn by observers is uncomfortable to ignore.

In Serbia, Kushner announced a plan to develop a sprawling bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade - a designated heritage zone. Special legislation was passed to facilitate the project. The government officials involved were later charged with abuse of office and falsifying documents. Kushner ultimately withdrew.

In Albania, Kushner announces plans to develop a protected Adriatic island and coastal nature reserve. Special legislation - Law 21/2024 - is passed to make construction in protected areas possible for luxury-rated resorts. Protests follow. An anti-corruption investigation is opened.

Whether the two situations will reach the same conclusion is unknown. What is clear is that "Affinity Partners arrives, special laws are passed, and things get legally complicated" is now a recognisable sequence.

What Happens Next

The protests are ongoing. SPAK's investigation is open. The machinery is still at the site.

The Albanian government has not indicated it plans to halt construction or withdraw its support for the project. Kushner and Affinity Partners have not made a public statement in response to the protests this week. Ivanka Trump, whose comments about finding the island from a friend's boat were made on a podcast recorded before the latest wave of demonstrations, has not commented publicly on the unfolding situation on the ground.

The European Commission, which monitors Albania's EU accession progress, has not yet issued a formal statement on the project - but EU environmental law experts have noted that large-scale construction in a protected biodiversity zone would ordinarily be incompatible with accession commitments.

The one certainty right now is that the people in the streets of Tirana are not going away quietly. For a country that endured decades of authoritarian rule and is now navigating the delicate path toward European membership, the question of who a government serves - its citizens and its natural heritage, or a billionaire arriving on a friend's boat - turns out to be one people feel strongly about.

The flamingos are still there, for now. The question is whether they will be when the construction is done.

Key Facts at a Glance

The project spans the uninhabited island of Sazan and the Vjosa-Narta Protected Area in southern Albania.
Estimated project cost: $4 billion (approximately €3 billion).
The development is linked to Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners and his wife Ivanka Trump.
Albania's Parliament passed Law 21/2024 enabling hotel construction in protected areas - critics call it the "Kushner Law."
Protests began in late May 2026 and have continued for more than a week.
Albania's SPAK anti-corruption agency opened an investigation on 2 June 2026.
15 protesters have been arrested; 2 private security employees are under investigation.
40+ environmental organisations from 28 countries have called for the project to be suspended.
A similar Kushner project in Serbia ended after corruption charges were filed against government officials involved.