How Albania became Europe’s unlikely heart of anti-Trumpism
In May 2026, protests began in Albania against Trump development on the island of Sazan, an unspoiled wilderness in the Mediterranean, in a new tale of people versus capitalism.
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What’s the story?
The people of Albania have a message for Donald Trump and his family, and it's not exactly polite.
"F**k you," was what one protester, on the streets of the city of Tirana, Albania, told Lewis Goodall when he attended one of the anti-Trump marches that have been taking place there since May 2026.
The story began in 2021, when Ivanka Trump 'discovered' a near-untouched island while holidaying off the Albanian coast.
"We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim," she said in a June 2026 interview.
"Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the island.
"We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated, and it stayed with us ever since."
Of course, on seeing an undeveloped piece of land, her first Trumpian instinct was to want to build a hotel resort on it.
This was not just some rocky out-crop, but the island of Sazan, an island paradise home to flamingos, rare marine species, with a landscape of lagoons, and what is said to be Europe's cleanest natural river.
Albania's Prime Minister, Edi Rama, supports the Trump vision for this unspoiled land, as it could potentially bring billions into the country.
‘Laws have been changed to accommodate the rich – and the Trumps’
But the people of Albania would rather keep their land unspoiled, than trade it for a deluge of America's elites.
"Hands off our land," another protester told Lewis, during a protest in August 2026.
"Our land is not for sale."
Protests began shortly after construction work began on the island earlier this summer, and have become known as the 'flamingo revolution'.
In 2024, to help make Ivanka's international real estate dream a reality, laws were changed to make it easier for developers to build on the country's protected areas.
"Things have been happening behind our backs," another protester told Lewis.
"Laws have been changing to accommodate the rich - the rich being the Trump family."
Protesters say that Albania is not for sale, but the country's government seems to have a very different view.
Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner, has shared AI-generated images of the family's plans for land that the people of Albania say belongs to them.
Environmental groups have also spoken out against the Trump development, saying the island's river is thought to be the last "pristine free-flowing river in the entire European continent" and describing the island itself as "one of the last remaining wilderness in the entire Mediterranean basin."
The island was legally part-owned by a Miami businessman, from whom Trump and Kushner bought the land, and part by the Albanian government, but ownership over Sazan has been disputed since the end of its communist rule in the early 1990s.
The former owner is facing an anti-corruption probe in the US, who is facing drug trafficking allegations.
Isaac Stanley-Becker, writer for The Atlantic, tells Lewis there is a tale of "drug trafficking and alleged gangsters" simmering below the surface of the Trump/Kushner real estate deal.
"There are questions about whether he has lawful title to the land, but whether his broader set of real estate dealings have been funded by drug trafficking," Stanley-Becker says.
"So these protests and the public inquiry has unearthed a kind of larger, perhaps criminal inquiry, or inquiry into potentially criminal activities."
Protests, he adds, like the ones seen in Tirana have become a "lightning rod" for social causes.
Could protests turn to violence?
Tour guide Arben Zola tells Lewis that the fight for Sazan isn't just about saving the island, it's about saving Albania for its people.
"A lot of people on the streets are pensioners whose pension is only £100 a month," Zola says.
"Can you imagine living with £100 when prices have gone crazy?
"A pensioner needs a minimum of £400 in Albania to have a living, but they are only receiving £100, £120 a month."
He believes any financial gain from a Trump resort in Albania will remain in the pockets of its leaders, and that if protests continue, they could turn to violence.
Edi Rama, he says, is not "reflecting" on the likely impact the island development would have on the population.
"This protest is not just against the prime minister and this government, which is the most corrupted by statistics of foreign agencies in Europe, but is also against the head of opposition," Zola adds.
He now fears the longer protests go on, the more likely they are to turn violent.
Is Albania the ‘home of anti-Trumpism” in Europe?
As Donald Trump's second term progresses, and anti-Trump sentiment grows, Lewis Goodall says Albania is poised to become the unlikely "home of anti-Trumpism" in Europe.
He also warns that the protests are fuelled by "deep caustic populism and anti-elitism." Neither, he says, tend to go anywhere.
"This is not really about Trump at all," Lewis says.
"It's what Trump, the House of Trump and his family represent, which is the ability to warp the rules around themselves, to use their power and wealth to have different rules apply to them.
"This is a country which, for a century or more, under regime after regime, has had so much experience of precisely that kind of politics.
"In that sense, what we're seeing night after night in this country is a rebellion, not against any person or group of people, and that should be inspirational to us."