Prime Minister Edi Rama and the public protests in Tirana have been the focus of the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The German outlet’s article says that Rama has described the protests as a challenge for the government. The article emphasizes that Prime Minister Rama considers the protests a test of confidence in his government and an opportunity for reflection.
“For me, it is a challenge. But that is a good thing. Throughout my political life, things have never really gone well when I have not been challenged. I am usually better when I am challenged. Will I be better this time too? I hope so. I don’t know. Time will tell. The future will prove it,” Prime Minister Rama is quoted as saying.
According to the Prime Minister, protests are a positive sign when citizens take to the streets over biodiversity, environmental protection and other issues of public interest.
Regarding the projects in Zvërnec and on Sazan Island, Rama once again rejected accusations of “selling” Albania, stressing that Sazan remains the property of the Albanian state.
According to him, an agreement for the development of the former military zone on Sazan by private investors has not yet been finalized.
“Rama insists that promoting foreign direct investment, particularly in the tourism sector, does not make him a tool of Trump. According to him, the prospect of investments worth more than four billion euros in projects planned by Jared Kushner and his partners is not something a prime minister can simply reject if he is thinking about the country’s interests,” the article states.
Regarding the impact of the protests on tourism, the article notes that they caused a slight slowdown in the sector’s growth, but the situation now appears to have been overcome. Albania is expected to record between 14 and 15 million visitors this year, compared with around 12.5 million a year earlier.
Full article:
For more than one hundred days, they have gathered every evening. At around 7:00 p.m., people gather in the heart of Tirana and walk along Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard. Roughly halfway along the route is the office of the Prime Minister, whose resignation they are demanding.
That is where the protest becomes loudest. From time to time, there are clashes with police officers and arrests outside the building, but most of the time the situation remains peaceful.
This happens evening after evening. On weekdays, protesters are noticeably more numerous than at weekends, when even the most persistent demonstrators sometimes choose the seaside instead of always remaining on the streets of Tirana. The latter are filled with young people going out to party. They celebrate at least as loudly and for as long as the protesters demonstrate. They are two parallel worlds that seem not to intersect.
Albania’s self-proclaimed “Flamingo Revolution” has so far not developed into a mass movement. Nevertheless, it has shown persistence. So has the head of government, Edi Rama. He has been in power since 2013 and is determined to remain there until the end of the current parliamentary term in 2029.
Which side will manage to hold out until the end?
The protests in the Albanian capital began in late May. They were triggered by the forceful intervention of employees of a private security company near a construction-site fence. The fence had been erected on the northern edge of the Zvërnec Peninsula, where preliminary work was due to begin on a luxury tourism project. Several hundred people had protested at the site against the project, which is being pursued by Affinity Partners, the investment company of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Clashes took place near the fence during the protest. Security guards dragged several protesters across the gravel to move them away from the construction-site fence. Mobile-phone footage of the intervention, in which no one was seriously injured, went viral.
But how could a relatively minor incident develop into a nationwide protest movement that even calls itself a revolution?
This is also linked to the flamingos, which the movement has chosen as the appealing symbol of the change it seeks. Environmentalists fear that colonies of pink flamingos and other migratory birds could be threatened by the tourism boom in southern Albania — particularly by luxury resorts planned by Arab and Qatari investors linked to Kushner’s group. The habitat of the pink flamingo is the Narta Lagoon, a protected area near Zvërnec.
The “Flamingo Movement” accuses the government of corruption and is demanding the expansion of protected areas, an end to preferential treatment for major investors and new democratic elections.
Initially, Rama, who has led the Socialist Party since 2005 and the government since 2013, tried to let the protests run their course. Protesters were told that they could not simply show up one day and remove the elected Prime Minister and his government from office.
“That is not how it works. You have to wait until the next elections.” It was an argument that was difficult to dismiss. In the May 2025 parliamentary elections, Rama and his Socialists had won more than 52% of the vote. It was the Socialists’ fourth consecutive election victory, while Rama and his party had steadily increased their share of the vote.
Yet, just after receiving his strongest mandate from voters, Rama suddenly faced the most serious threat to his hold on power. Just under two months after the protests began, he changed tactics. Instead of continuing to show protesters his “fist” through rhetoric, he is now trying to pat them on the back. The protests, he now says, are a sign of the vitality and stability of Albanian democracy. He distinguishes between those who raise legitimate demands and should be listened to, and those who, according to him, are being used by his opponents inside and outside the country for political purposes.
In a forceful speech to the Socialist parliamentary group at the end of July, Rama presented the government’s new strategy. He spoke of a deep crisis of public trust. Addressing figures in his party accustomed to electoral victories, Rama complained about the “paradox of success”: the more a society develops and prospers, the less it judges what has been achieved and what works, and the more it focuses on what is missing and what does not work.
Poor societies, he said, are more tolerant of shortcomings because the prevailing mindset is that “it could be worse.” Albania, according to Rama, has moved beyond that stage and entered another, where the prevailing idea is that “it could be better.”
Therefore, according to him, what is now needed is a “caring state” that listens to and takes citizens’ experiences seriously, improves the quality of services and investments and, in this way, strengthens citizens’ trust in the state.
Rama’s speech was received positively by Socialist Party MPs and officials. Representatives of the Flamingo Movement rejected it as a rhetorical maneuver aimed at diverting attention from the fundamental problems: corruption, lack of transparency and environmental destruction.
Sali Berisha, the leader of the conservative opposition Democratic Party, raised suspicions that Rama had used artificial intelligence to draft the 40-page document, which he described as lacking substance and poorly written.
Rama himself does not give the impression that he feels on the defensive because of the “Flamingo Revolution.” He receives visitors in his office at the Prime Minister’s building. His white sneakers are under the desk. He is wearing loose black trousers, a black sweater and black socks. Basketball jerseys that the former Albanian national team player has received as gifts hang from a clothes rack. Cabinets and shelves are filled with various works of art.
Rama does not believe that the country is at a turning point, much less a breaking point. “But without a doubt, it is a test of confidence.” He says he tries to see the glass as both half full and half empty.
“If someone else sees the glass as half empty, that is fine. They see less of what we have achieved and demand more. While the person who sees the glass as half full sees precisely what we have achieved.”
In principle, according to him, it is a positive sign when people take to the streets — for biodiversity, environmental protection and other issues.
“For me, it is a challenge. But that is a good thing. Throughout my political life, things have never really gone well when I have not been challenged. I am usually better when I am challenged. Will I be better this time too? I hope so. I don’t know. Time will tell. The future will prove it.”
As for the immediate cause of the protests on the Albanian Riviera, Rama recalls that the first contact with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump regarding a possible investment in Zvërnec and on Sazan Island took place at a time when Donald Trump had not yet returned to the presidency.
“Trump’s life at that time was swinging between prison and the White House.”
Rama insists that the fact that, as Albania’s Prime Minister, he promotes foreign direct investment in his country, particularly in the key tourism sector, does not make him a tool of Trump.
And the prospect of more than four billion euros in investment in projects planned by Kushner and his partners, Rama says, is not something he can simply reject as Prime Minister if he is thinking about the country’s interests.
However, according to him, there can be no talk of a “sale” of Albania. Sazan Island remains the property of the Albanian state and will remain so. No agreement has yet been reached on the possible development of the former closed military zone by private investors into a luxury resort.
In June, the protests caused a slight slowdown in the growth of Albanian tourism. This now appears to have been overcome. Albania is expected to record between 14 and 15 million visitors this year, compared with around 12.5 million a year earlier.
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