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A multibillion-dollar luxury resort plan backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump has erupted into Albania's gravest political crisis in years, drawing thousands into the streets, freezing developer assets, and opening a diplomatic rift with neighboring Greece.
Kushner first presented his vision for Albania's Adriatic coast roughly two years ago, after spotting the uninhabited island of Sazan — a former secret communist military base — during a 2021 yacht trip. His investment firm, Affinity Partners, alongside Qatari investors, secured "strategic investor" status for a sprawling development of hotels, villas and a marina. Reports describe plans for as many as 10,000 hotel rooms across Sazan and the protected Vjosa-Narta coastal wetland near Zvernec, with a total budget variously estimated between €1.4 billion and more than €4 billion. The government markets it as a world-class eco-resort that could turn Albania into a global tourism destination.
Why Albanians are furious
Public anger boiled over in late May after videos showed bulldozers on the beaches and private security guards stringing barbed wire to block coastal access. Footage of a guard punching and dragging a protester went viral. For three consecutive evenings, thousands rallied in Tirana under banners reading "Albania is not for sale," "I don't want Albania like Dubai," and "Ivanka, go home," demanding the project be cancelled and former landowners restored. Some protests have escalated into calls for Prime Minister Edi Rama's government to resign.
Critics raise three intertwined concerns. Environmental groups — some 40 organizations called for suspension back in January — warn the Vjosa-Narta delta is one of the Mediterranean's last semi-pristine wetlands, home to flamingos, seals and nesting sea turtles, and that the project would "completely destroy that wild region." Transparency campaigners allege a lack of public consultation and documentation over permits, pointing to legislative changes that eased construction in protected zones. And corruption suspicions center on Kushner's overlapping roles as informal White House adviser and private investor, with opponents accusing Tirana of granting preferential treatment to curry favor with Washington — a charge Rama denies. Albania's anti-corruption prosecutor, SPAK, has opened a probe into disputed land titles and frozen the bank accounts of a linked landholding company.
The Greek angle
The dispute has acquired an international dimension because Zvernec lies within a Greek-speaking region of southern Albania. Members of the ethnic Greek minority say the development threatens properties their families have held for generations. After a Greek citizen was injured in the May 30 clashes, Athens expressed "deep concern," provided consular and medical aid through its Tirana embassy, and demanded a full investigation. Greece pointedly tied the matter to Albania's EU ambitions, calling respect for minority property rights and protected areas "a prerequisite for progress in the accession process." Rama dismissed the intervention, insisting historical property disputes belong in Albanian courts and rejecting any suggestion of anti-Greek policy.
What comes next
Rama has remained defiant, vowing there is "absolutely no chance" the investment will stop while he leads the country, and offering protesters a 20-person delegation for talks — an offer they rejected. The European Commission has echoed Greece's rule-of-law and environmental warnings, putting Albania's EU bid under fresh scrutiny. With more demonstrations planned, Zvernec has become a national test of whether strategic foreign investment will be governed by law and public interest — or by the opaque convergence of political power and private capital.