Dua Lipa has said protests in Albania against a Trump family-backed luxury development project on a nature reserve are “inspiring”.
Demonstrations against the 1,400-acre development on the abandoned island of Sazan, which was purchased by the US president’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been ongoing for more than six weeks.
The singer, who has Kosovan-Albanian parents, has now voiced her support for the tens of thousands who have marched in the capital of Tirana against the construction in the country’s south, in what has been dubbed Albania’s ‘Flamingo Revolution’.
The Albanian parliament controversially fast-tracked the business project in December 2024, when it amended strict legislation regarding construction on environmentally sensitive areas.
“What I actually find concerning is the principle that the government could just change the law to remove the environmental protection without any kind of public consultation,” the 30-year-old pop star said on her Service95 Book Club podcast, during an episode with Albanian author Lea Ypi.
“I find it so inspiring to see how much people really care.”
Sitting within the Vjosa-Narta delta, the peninsula is recognised as one of the most important coastal ecosystems in Europe, home to 70 endangered species, including the monk seal and loggerhead sea turtle, as well as migratory birds, flamingos and the Dalmatian pelican.
The Trump family’s plans involved major construction on Sazan, which is Albania’s only island, along with a $4.7 billion agreement for an additional 10,000 villas on the Zvernec peninsula.
On the David Senra podcast at the end of May, Ivanka Trump revealed that she said that along with her husband, she was working on a real estate project on a “massive scale” along with “some of the greatest living architects of our time”.
Environmental organisations say bulldozers were brought onto the site on the Zvernec Peninsula before proper permits had been obtained or an environmental impact assessment carried out, and a barbed wire fence erected.
Albania’s government says the development will be transformative for the country, aiming to boost tourism and support its bid for European Union membership. Prime minister Edi Rama has been forced to dismiss accusations that he is the ‘Godfather’ behind a system of corruption in the country.
“People say I’m the one in charge of all this. I tell them, ‘f*** you.’ It’s as simple as that,” he said. “It’s not up to me to prove I’m not the Godfather, it’s up to them to prove I am the Godfather.”
The development could even pose a risk to Albania’s EU accession talks, after MEPs warned they are at risk if the government does not “change course” over the plans.
“If Rama is really serious about his EU ambitions, he should step back from this trajectory and say to the Trump clan: ‘Sorry, the EU is my first priority’,” Dutch MEP Tineke Strik told The Guardian as she headed a European parliament fact-finding mission to the Balkan nation.
