A luxury island development backed by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner has triggered days of escalating protests in Albania, as opposition to the multibillion-dollar project spreads beyond the capital and into the country’s southern coast.
At the center of the controversy is Sazan Island, an uninhabited former military outpost off the coast of Vlore, where the couple’s investment firm plans to build a $1.4 billion luxury resort complex. The broader project also includes coastal development near Zvërnec, an ecologically sensitive area home to flamingos, sea turtles, and protected wetlands.
Environmental groups say the plan risks permanently damaging one of Albania’s most fragile coastal ecosystems. And they’re not backing down.
For three consecutive days, demonstrators have taken to the streets in Tirana, with additional protests now being organized in southern regions closer to the proposed construction sites. Activists say early groundwork has already begun in some areas, raising fears that development is moving faster than public oversight.
The backlash has also intensified after opponents rejected an invitation from Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama for talks, insisting the process has already been handled behind closed doors.
“From start to finish there has been a total lack of transparency,” said Aleksandër Trajçe, head of Albania’s leading environmental group PPNEA. He said there has been no meaningful public consultation and demanded construction be halted before any further discussion.
“Remove the bulldozers, remove the fence, and restore the habitats,” he said. “Then we can start talking.”
The project was first unveiled in 2024, when Jared Kushner’s investment firm secured a deal to transform Sazan into a high-end tourist destination. Months later, following Donald Trump’s election victory, the Albanian government granted the development “strategic investor status,” a designation that fast-tracks permits and regulatory approvals.
That decision has since become a political flashpoint.
Opposition leader Sali Berisha has raised concerns that the government may be using the project to cultivate political influence, while still stopping short of opposing development outright.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rama has defended the project as a cornerstone of Albania’s tourism ambitions and rejected claims that it threatens the environment.
“There is absolutely no chance that the investment will stop as long as I am here,” he said.
Public anger surged again this week after Ivanka Trump addressed the project during a podcast interview, describing how she and Kushner discovered the island while boating in the Adriatic and became captivated by its natural beauty.
“We swam to the islands… we were just captivated,” she said, adding that the development would be done with “restraint and care.”
That framing did little to calm critics.
Clips from the interview quickly circulated online, where the project was met with a wave of backlash. Comments included phrases such as “Albania is not for sale,” “Hands off Albanian soil,” and “Sazan is not a private island.”
Even late-night comedy has picked up the story. On *The Daily Show*, host Michael Kosta mocked the timing of a billionaire-backed island resort amid global economic strain, joking that “the island doesn’t have rooms yet.”
For protesters on the ground, however, the issue is less about punchlines and more about permanence.
They argue that once construction begins in earnest, Albania’s coastline may never look the same again.
