When Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump announced plans to build a luxury resort on a protected Albanian wetland, they probably didn’t expect flamingos to become the face of the resistance.

“People are now in love with flamingos, which became the icon of the movement,” Besjana Guri, an Albanian environmental activist, explained to us.

Following meetings between the Trumps and Albanian prime minister Edi Rama, Sazan's protected status was revoked. “After 2024, the government changed the law that prohibited infrastructure projects in protected areas. They specifically added a clause allowing them to build infrastructure and luxury tourism projects,” Guri continued.

The Vjosa-Narta wetlands are home to over 200 bird species, including flamingos, as well as sea turtles and Mediterranean monk seals.

The planned luxury tourism projects sparked the largest Albanian protests in years. “The problem was the lack of transparency; some of the properties haven’t been sold yet, and the papers [of property] have been falsified,” told a student to TEC. The project is now being investigated by SPAK, Albania’s anti-corruption prosecutor, over falsified property papers and unlawful changes of ownership.

Albania's large diaspora joined local protests in Italy, England, the US, Greece, Austria, and Belgium. “Rama has lost all legitimacy, if he ever had any, and the respect of his own citizens, both at home and abroad,” Albanian researcher Gresa Hasa explained The European Correspondent.

The European Union since warned Albania that it expects the candidate country to comply with environmental regulations, with regard to Jared Kushner’s project. Albania's environmental minister since claimed that the project is on hault until impact assessments with civil society are completed.

But the protests grew beyond just this initiative. What started as a reaction to fences built on the site has grown into a civic resistance to Rama, who has governed over Albania for 13 years. “People are fed up with the corruption, and we’ve had enough,” a 20-year-old Albanian student who joined the protests explained.

The opposition, led by ex-PM Sali Berisha, also supports the project, leaving protesters without allies in either major party. “There is no political party that can claim ownership of us, no opposition leader who can harvest our energy for electoral gain. That purity is what brought us onto the streets in our tens of thousands,” protester Stjuart Islamaj shared.

A protest, which he says, is led by Gen Z: “You cannot run an outdated PR playbook on us and expect it to land – and the government has learned this the hard way.”