The Trump-Kushner resort plan triggering a 'Flamingo revolution'

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s plans to build a high-end luxury resort on a nature reserve in Albania have sparked an uprising known as the “flamingo revolution”, writes Lindsey Hilsum.

At first I couldn’t see them. Then, as we drove along the causeway through the Narta lagoon, I caught sight of a small group floating off to our right. Then thousands to our left, feeding in the shallows.

Surely flamingos are the most extraordinary of creatures, elegantly standing on one leg, their curved black bills hooking plankton under the surface of the water, taking flight, a stripe of electric orange on their wings, above the pink and white of their bodies.

Here in Albania, they’ve triggered an uprising - the ‘flamingo revolution’.

For two months, tens of thousands of people have marched through the streets of the capital, Tirana, many holding aloft life-size pink Styrofoam flamingos on sticks. They’re trying to stop a high-end tourist development that they say threatens Zvernec, an area of natural beauty around the lagoon, and Sazan Island which lies just offshore in the Adriatic.

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‘Latter day Robinson Crusoes’

The project is the brainchild of none other than Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. In a now-famous video clip, Ivanka - dressed in pink as befits anything involving flamingos - described how, like latter day Robinson Crusoes, they had come across the Sazan, while sailing on their friend Nat Rothschild’s yacht.

“We stopped for a swim, effectively that’s how we found it,” she said. “We swam to the island, we went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captivated. Not only the island, but we have five miles of beachfront, directly across from the island, this beautiful peninsula with the lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other.” They were, she added, “very excited.”

As yet there has been no development on Sazan. When we visited, day-trippers were lounging on the pebbly beach, and on the pillboxes - the roofs of the bunkers Albania’s paranoid Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, built all over the country during the Cold War.

‘You couldn’t get in’

Zvernec is a different story. I visited with Besjana Guri, pictured below, one of Albania’s foremost environmental activists, who won the prestigious Goldman Prize for her work protecting the Vjosa River. She showed me the concrete foundations and bolts where developers had erected a fence in late May.

“It was a public beach one day, and then the next day you couldn’t go,” she said. “If you are a tourist or a biologist and you want to go to study, or you are a resident from the area, you couldn’t get in.”

Protesters tore down the fence, but the developers had already built an access road and brought in heavy earth-moving equipment that, according to environmentalists, disturbed the endangered loggerhead turtles that nest in the sand dunes. The development has now stopped, but the activists don’t know if and when it might restart.

The developers sent us a statement saying they’re working towards creating a world-class destination, rooted in thoughtful design and environmental stewardship... its future they said would be determined by Albania and the Albanian people.

Untouched beach

Guri took me to the top of the cliffs from which we could see the arc of a perfect, untouched white sand beach. Then I looked at Kushner’s Instagram feed, pictured below, where, in 2024, he had posted an impression of how it could look: hotels up to 10 storeys high, hundreds of villas, restaurants, and a marina for 350 yachts.

Guri and her colleagues are horrified about the potential damage to the wildlife.

“We are speaking about more than 2,000 species,” she said. “We have more than 200 bird species and 18 different priority habitats, which means this is an exceptional area for Albania and for Europe.”

When I sat down with Prime Minister Edi Rama, he said the Instagram post was just “a teaser”. His enthusiasm was obvious.

“The process has evolved. Now there are top architects involved and landscape designers famous for working with wetlands. And at the same time, we are doing the environmental impact assessments independently from them. So, the project does not aim to brutalise a beautiful place. It aims to regenerate it.”

Government ‘doesn’t listen’

Neither side is backing down. A core of protesters turns out night after night, some focused on alleged corruption in government and getting Rama to resign.

“The government doesn’t listen to us,” said Florjan Binaj, a comedian who is running as an independent candidate for mayor. “They say that you have voted for us. But they make decisions on their own without asking anybody.”

High-end tourism

The Prime Minister, who has been in office for 13 years, told me he has reflected on the protests, and is proud of the fact that Albanians feel free to express themselves.

The European Commission has expressed concerns about the project, and - eager to push Albania’s candidacy for the European Union - he says the government will follow all EU environmental guidelines. But he believes that high-end tourism, especially this project worth more than $4bn, is essential to Albania’s development.

“This will be one of the most amazing things that will happen to Europe in a long time,” he said.

“It will not be what people wrongly imagine.”

Trump and Kushner resort plan sparks ‘flamingo revolution’ in Albania