Entrenched corruption, democratic backsliding, a government that rewards its cronies and is drifting toward authoritarianism, the rising cost of living, and a piece of national territory handed over to Trump’s son-in-law…
Albanians have been protesting for more than four months.
In a country of just 3 million people, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets against Prime Minister Edi Rama and his government.
The Sazan Island project
It all began on May 23, 2026.
Albanians had been closely following the “Sazan Island Resort” project on Sazan Island. When they learned that two American companies, Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC and Affinity Partners, were behind the project, they began protesting.
Sazan Island Resort is a “luxury tourism” project with an estimated total cost of €1.4 billion. The island is set to become a “tourist destination” with 10,000 accommodation units.
Affinity Partners is owned by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who is married to his daughter Ivanka.
A project kept secret from the public
As we mentioned, Albanians began protesting when they learned who was behind the project. They came to learn, because the project had been kept secret and the public had been misled.
On November 5, 2024, Donald Trump won the US presidential election. Shortly afterward, in December 2024, the Albanian government decided to open the area on Sazan Island to civilian use.
Trump was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2025. Just days later, the Albanian government approved the Sazan Island project.
The Albanian government insisted that the timing was totally coincidental. The government also claimed that developments surrounding the project had nothing to do with Kushner’s connections to the White House. Kushner made the same claim.
Protests against barbed-wire fences
Soon afterward, however, work began to erect barbed-wire fences around the project site.
Edi Rama claimed that the development would not damage the protected area. But that claim also proved false.
When Albanian media reported that the Sazan Island Resort project was linked to Kushner’s Affinity Partners, Albanians took action.
The first protests against the project took place in May. On May 23, demonstrators gathered to oppose the fencing off of another section of the island with barbed wire.
One protester was dragged on the ground following police intervention. Footage of the incident sparked widespread outrage across the country.
The following day, the protests reached Tirana, Albania’s capital.
Trump’s daughter hikes on the Island
While Albanians were protesting against the project, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump was telling a very different story.
In an interview published on June 1, she was recounting:
“I’m working on an incredible project with my husband in the Mediterranean. It’s massive in scale. It’s an unbelievable, beautiful 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We were on a friend’s boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it. We swam to the island. We went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top. And we were just captivated and it stayed with us ever since.”
Quite a charming story.
Trump’s daughter and son-in-law set their sights on one of Albania’s most precious islands.
And Albania’s leaders spare no effort to turn the couple’s vision into reality.
Albanians, realizing what was happening, are decide to act. This was how the popular movement begins.
The June protests
By June 1, the protests had drawn huge crowds.
The demands of the demonstrators had gone far beyond the Sazan Island project. They were now calling for Edi Rama’s resignation.
Over the following two weeks, protests spread to numerous cities across the country, with demonstrators facing police intervention.
On June 20, some 250,000 people took to the streets in Albania, a country with a population of just 3 million.
On June 22, the movement presented the government with five key demands.
These included the resignation of Edi Rama and his entire government, the establishment of a transitional government for one year, a new constitution, and a new “social contract” between citizens and the state.
Since June 22, the popular movement has continued, with its intensity and reach rising and falling over time.
Students breathe new life into the movement
By October 13, the popular movement had gained new momentum. Students and young people brought fresh energy to the protests.
Students had already been taking part in the demonstrations, but from October 13 onward, they began taking on a more organized and distinct mission, fueling the movement with renewed determination.
Alongside the rising cost of living, students brought their own grievances, particularly the growing burden of education expenses, to the forefront of the national debate.
Emir Lecini, one of the students taking part in the demonstrations, told The New York Times:
“After more than 130 days of a national peaceful protest, we, as students wanted to show that we have many other reasons to protest. Our system of education is unacceptable, cost of living is high and students are not treated with dignity.”
Protesters set part of the Ministry of Education building on fire. They also forced their way into the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Interior.
The intensity of the protests was evident in the government’s response: it was forced to deploy both its elite police units and counterterrorism forces.
Catalyst symbol
The popular movement in Albania continues.
What can we say at this stage?
The underlying causes of the protests — entrenched corruption, democratic backsliding, a government that rewards its cronies and is drifting toward authoritarianism, the rising cost of living — are becoming burdens that people in many countries are no longer willing to bear.
Against this backdrop, the decision to hand over one of Albania’s most treasured pieces of territory to Trump’s son-in-law has emerged as a catalyst symbol for the protests.
The prospect of handing over Albanian territory to the ultra-rich of the US appears to have come to symbolize everything that has gone wrong in the country in recent years.