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Albanians, protesting for a month against a tourism project planned for the Zvernec district of Vlore, continued their demonstrations outside Parliament. The project’s connection to the Trump family is at the center of the backlash.
Protesters voiced opposition to the planned sale of a beach in Zvernec as part of a tourism development project allegedly linked to Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner.
In the protests that became famous for the slogan “Albania is not for sale,” Prime Minister Edi Rama and other government officials were asked to resign.
The demonstrators carried banners reading "Parliament of Crime," "35 years of destruction, corruption, theft and population decline," and "Albanian politics must be uprooted for the future of Albania."
While some protesters attempting to bring a rubbish bin into the Parliament gardens were stopped by the police, a group of protesters threw eggs at MPs’ cars.
Tensions rose between the protesters and the police following their arrival. It was reported that those who had thrown eggs at the MPs’ cars were handcuffed and taken to the police station.
By mid-afternoon, dozens of protesters had gathered outside Tirana police headquarters to demand the detainees’ release. The detainees were later freed.
Albanian rights defender Endri Shabani said in a television interview that he had "opened an investigation into the behaviour of the police". "The right to protest is a constitutional right and the police behaved in a disproportionate manner towards the protesters," he added.
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