Under the slogan “Albania Is Not for Sale,” protesters have been confronting riot police and water cannons in Tirana. They want Prime Minister Edi Rama gone and a multibillion-dollar luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, cancelled. Truthout describes the demonstrations as among the largest waves of anti-government protest in Albania since socialism ended in 1992.
The protests began in late May. Local residents and environmental activists, including a group called Movement TOGETHER, first objected to the Zvërnec project, planned for the protected Vjosa-Narta delta area. The Narta Lagoon shelters migratory birds such as flamingos, and hundreds of bird species live in the wider area. Rama’s government has pressed ahead despite the area’s protected status.
Land claims and a disputed price tag
Ariela Zeneli, a social activist and project coordinator, told Truthout that property rights fed the anger. Families who have lived in the delta for generations say they were stripped of their claims through irregular and often fake processes. On the first day of the protest, she said, a demonstrator was dragged away by private security guards while police stood by. “The incident sparked outrage and drew even more people to the cause.”
Transparency is the other grievance. Rama has promoted the resort as a €4 billion investment that will transform the region. He has also admitted there is no final project and that the company is only at the environmental assessment stage. “These statements do not add up,” Zeneli said. Rama has called for dialogue and negotiations, but she said the dominant message from the crowds remains one word: “Resign.”
Rama still backs the resort. He alleges that the enemies of Albania and Israel are behind the unrest.
The Flamingo Revolution
The flamingo gave the movement its name. Zeneli said the bird became a symbol of the defence of nature, public resources and local communities against development driven by large private corporations. She also argued that the protests reach well beyond one tourism project, because many local residents expect to lose control of their land and be left with low-paid, seasonal hotel jobs.
Another chant has caught on: “Rama in jail, Berisha in jail!” Rama leads the Socialist Party and Sali Berisha leads the Democratic Party. Zeneli said many participants no longer believe that swapping power between the two would change anything.
Movement TOGETHER, which Zeneli belongs to, was founded on December 18, 2022, by members of Organizata Politike, a leftist grassroots group active in Albania since 2011. Its party leader, Arlind Qori, ran for mayor of Tirana in the 2023 local elections and won nearly 5 percent of the vote. Redi Muçi entered parliament for the party on September 12, 2025.
What could happen next
Zeneli said she cannot tell whether Rama will resign. Governments elsewhere in the Balkans have often answered big protests with repression, and she saw that as one possibility if the demonstrations grow more radical. For now she thinks it unlikely, since the protests have been entirely peaceful and the European Union is watching closely. The European Parliament has called for a suspension of all new development in protected areas.
She named a second possibility: concessions to appease the crowds. The best outcome, in her view, would be Rama’s resignation and snap elections, but she put the odds as “not that great” given the government’s firm grip on power.
