Protests continue in Albania over Trump family-linked resort project
Albanians have continued protests over plans for a luxury beach resort in a protected nature reserve by a company linked to the family of US President Donald Trump.
Hundreds of people, including locals and activists from across the country, gathered on Saturday at the Vjosa-Narta lagoon on the southern Adriatic coast.
They denounced the €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) resort, which is being led by an investment firm owned by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the environmentally sensitive area.
Some of the demonstrators waved Albanian national flags, while others carried inflatable flamingos and chanted slogans such as "cancel the project!"
"The whole of this marine area is a protected zone. To destroy it would be fatal for this region's biodiversity," protester Emiljona Puja, a finance worker, told AFP.
The project includes the construction of hotels on the uninhabited island of Sazan and in the Vjosa-Narta wetland, home to migratory birds, including flamingos. It has raised concerns over environmental damage and corruption amid a lack of transparency surrounding the deal.
Vjosa-Narta saw an initial protest in late May after builders began erecting a concrete-based, barbed wire-topped fence around the construction site.
The Albanian capital, Tirana, has also seen similar protests over the past week, some of which turned violent.
Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday downplayed the demonstrations, claiming that there was "no reason to worry" and that "top" world experts were involved in the plan.
Kushner’s project in Albania was part of a wider investment that also included a former army headquarters in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Last year, however, he gave up the Serbia plan following protests against it.
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