Like many residents of Zvernec, a community on Albania’s coast, Brunela Mertiri swam and sunbathed at the Pishe Poro beach all her life—at least until the razor-wire fences went up this spring.

Those fences mark the proposed site of a luxury tourist resort that would stretch over 13 million square feet of coastal Albania, including protected lands around the Narta Lagoon and Sazan Island. The highly controversial Sazan resort project is backed by several companies affiliated with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and has won the support of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. The development broke ground in April, but it has since stalled, following calls for an environmental review and investigations by Albania’s independent corruption watchdog, the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK).

Like many residents of Zvernec, a community on Albania’s coast, Brunela Mertiri swam and sunbathed at the Pishe Poro beach all her life—at least until the razor-wire fences went up this spring.

Those fences mark the proposed site of a luxury tourist resort that would stretch over 13 million square feet of coastal Albania, including protected lands around the Narta Lagoon and Sazan Island. The highly controversial Sazan resort project is backed by several companies affiliated with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and has won the support of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. The development broke ground in April, but it has since stalled, following calls for an environmental review and investigations by Albania’s independent corruption watchdog, the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK).

“This is my land. They do not deserve to come and take our land, our sea, our forest. It is ours; it is not theirs. It is not Kastrati’s nor Kushner’s nor Trump’s nor anyone else’s,” Mertiri said in a recent viral video clip, referring to Shefqet Kastrati, one of Albania’s most powerful businessmen, who is also linked to the project.

The video of Mertiri, as well as a clip of a young man being dragged by two private security personnel during a protest, conveys how enraged Albanians have become over the project. For more than a month, tens of thousands of protesters in Tirana, Albania’s capital, have marched to Rama’s office, demanding the cancellation of the project, his resignation, and more generally, the end of corruption in a country eager to join the European Union.

Dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution,” in honor of the migratory bird that shelters in the Narta Lagoon, this is the most significant social movement in Albania since the fall of the communist regime in 1991. It is without a doubt a Gen Z movement, echoing other youth-led anti-corruption and anti-authoritarian movements in the region, including in Hungary, Serbia, and beyond. Though nominally about the resort, the movement has grown to project a vision of a new Albania committed to the values of democracy, transparency, and accountability. It’s mobilizing multiple generations across the political spectrum, energizing the vast diaspora, and drawing European sympathizers. But they are up against entrenched corruption, clientelism, organized crime, and a long-standing neglect of the public interest and public good.

First proposed in 2024, the resort would include multibillion-dollar investments at two sites: around $1.4 billion to develop the island of Sazan and a $4.7 billion to develop a vast plot of land around Zvernec. One leaked plan shows the construction of 600 townhouses, 520 villas, 1,400 apartments, a marina fit for 350 superyachts, a golf course, shops, restaurants, and much more. Rama insists that such a project will bring much needed development in the area. “They are big investors. It’s a historical chance for........

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