Albania: protests against Kushner's resort plans
In Albania, sweeping and at times violent protests have repeatedly broken out against plans to build a vast luxury tourist resort on the coast. According to the plans it would be located in protected areas on the Narta Lagoon and the offshore island of Sazan. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is involved in the project which, the government stresses, has yet to be approved.
Battle against neo-colonialism
Agonas tis Kritis is deeply impressed by the protests:
“The Albanians have shown the world how to do it. ... This is not just about business, it's about sovereignty. It's about preventing a country from being sold off to foreign billionaires and local people from losing access to their own coastline. When elites sacrifice a nation's future for luxury resorts, the people have every right to defend themselves to the hilt. Hats off to the Albanians who are refusing to be colonised by money; other countries should be taking notes.”
No sign of political change
It's highly unlikely that the demonstrators' demands will be heard, Rzeczpospolita writes:
“ It was not long before the protests formulated a purely political demand: the resignation of the prime minister. But the demonstrators are not just targeting Edi Rama, who has been in power for 13 years, but also the head of the opposition (the former prime minister and president) Sali Berisha. ... Their parties both share the same position on the huge construction project. ... There is nothing to suggest that these protests will lead to Rama's resignation. His government is stable and has a clear majority in parliament. It has control over all key institutions, meaning that local or ecological protests don't pose a threat.”
Widespread discontent
It may have been the Trump clan's controversial construction project that sparked the protests, but the problems go deeper, Večernji list explains:
“The protests are no longer focused on the resort, but have become an opportunity to protest against corruption, land disputes, powerless institutions and the arrogance of the government. ... The anger is particularly visible among young Albanians, for whom Zvërnec is not just a protected stretch of coastline but a symbol of a corrupt system and the privatisation of public space, in the form of fenced off beaches. Banners wielded by the protesters, who have gathered in their tens of thousands, bear the words 'Albania is not for sale' or 'Albania is not Dubai.'”
More in common than they think
Albania and Serbia have been arch-enemies ever since the Kosovo conflict. But the two countries are united by their protests for social and ecological justice, observes Pešćanik:
“In this struggle for social and ecological justice it's impossible to overlook the huge and fundamental similarities between the protests in Serbia and Albania. ... Public protest and opposition from experts and the last remains of various institutions, in particular the conscientious experts at the Belgrade Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, led to the prosecution of several civil servants and to Kushner abandoning his luxury hotel project out of respect for the Serbian people and the city of Belgrade. Is that not an important message for Albania's intellectual elite and its civil society?”