Albania's Rama vows to push on with Kushner-linked luxury resort despite protests
TIRANA, June 8 (Reuters) - Albania will plough on with a luxury resort planned by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner on a remote stretch of Balkan coast despite persistent protests over its environmental impact, Prime Minister Edi Rama told Reuters on Monday.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the capital Tirana and on the southern coast where the resort has been proposed, calling for the project to be scrapped because of the impact on a protected wetland home to flamingoes, seals and sea turtle nesting sites.
The flamingo has emerged as the movement's symbol: protesters hoist inflatable pink birds and signs saying "Flamingo Revolution".
Rama is unmoved, telling Reuters that the developers will "stun" onlookers with their plans in the coming months and that parts of the resort could be open to the public before the end of the decade.
"I'm telling you, it's going to be a beautiful project and we're going to do it and we're going to be proud to contribute to Europe," Rama said during an interview in his office, a few metres from where nightly demonstrations against the project have taken place.
"I was voted in to make these things happen. I'm not voted to be led by people that have a different idea of how to develop the country."
Thousands took to Tirana's streets on Monday evening, calling for a halt to the project but also venting a litany of grievances against Rama’s 13-year tenure that they say has failed to uproot corruption or improve basic services.
“We are getting bigger and we are here until he resigns. Not only for biodiversity but for every injustice we face,” said student Albano Lushi.
Rama, 61, a former basketball player and artist who took office in 2013 and aims to bring Albania into the EU, takes pride in presiding over the modernisation of a country that had languished for decades under a particularly stifling communist dictatorship until the 1990s.
He cultivates an informal style, in a baggy black suit with black T-shirt and white sneakers. His office looks like an urban co-working space, with wallpaper overlaid with his own colourful paintings. Plates filled with crayons and coloured markers are scattered about and his desk is a mess of doodles.
The resort development he champions is the brainchild of Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, who described falling in love with Albania a few years ago while visiting on a boat. Rama met them on that trip and found them to be "very nice, humble...humanly good people."
Now, Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners is involved in the €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) project near the Vjosa-Narta protected area, and another one on nearby Sazan Island.
Together the projects are worth up to €5 billion, Rama said.
"It's a big dream and big dreams have always faced controversy."
Affinity Partners and Kushner have not responded to requests for comment. Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, which is developing the plans, has told Reuters that it will do so responsibly.
Protests kicked off at the end of May when the site near Vjosa-Narta was closed off with barbed wire fencing amid work on an access road and other pre-construction developments. Some protesters were injured in clashes with private security. Anger then spread to Tirana.
The fence has since been removed. Rama conceded that it was a "disgraceful idea" to put it up.
Still, Rama played down the environmental concerns. He said that an environmental impact assessment was not yet done and would be completed in parallel with the developments.
"We are very proud of what we have done for the wildlife in Albania. The European Commission has no reason to doubt our firm will to protect whatever has to be protected when it comes to wildlife and nature."
