Albania's 'Flamingo Revolution': Thousands Rally for a Fifth Day Against a Kushner-Backed Coastal Resort

Thousands of Albanians marched through the capital, Tirana, for a fifth consecutive day this week in a swelling protest movement against a luxury coastal resort project linked to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, brandishing pink inflatable flamingos that have become the symbol of what demonstrators now call the "Flamingo Revolution."

The demonstrations, formally known as the 2026 Zvërnec protests, began in May in the villages of Zvërnec and Nartë in Vlorë County before spreading to the capital. Protesters marched toward the prime minister's office chanting "revolution" and "stop the project," and some demanded the resignation of the government led by Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has championed the development as a transformative investment for the country.

At the center of the dispute is a proposed multibillion-dollar tourism complex in the Portonovo area and on nearby Sazan Island, tied to Affinity Partners, the investment firm led by Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, and associated with his wife, Ivanka Trump. Plans for the project have described a sprawling resort capable of accommodating as many as 10,000 hotel rooms along the Zvërnec coastline and on the island.

Opponents say the development threatens the Vjosa–Narta protected landscape, a wetland ecosystem that is home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites. Reuters has reported that the Kushner-linked plans include an island project and an undeveloped coastal stretch adjacent to the protected area. Protesters have cited environmental destruction, disputed land ownership, corruption allegations and what they describe as a lack of transparency in the permitting process.

The flamingo, an emblem of the threatened wetland, has given the movement its name and its imagery, with demonstrators hoisting pink inflatable birds above the crowds. The protests have also become a magnet for online misinformation: fact-checkers at outlets including France 24 have flagged a wave of misleading and fabricated videos purporting to show the unrest, underscoring how the dispute has drawn international attention well beyond Albania's borders.

For Rama's government, the standoff is a delicate one. The prime minister has staked part of his economic vision on high-end tourism and foreign investment along Albania's Adriatic and Ionian coasts, and the Kushner connection lends the project geopolitical weight. But the daily marches show no sign of fading, and the Flamingo Revolution has turned a fight over one stretch of coastline into a national referendum on development, the environment and who gets to decide the future of Albania's shore.