Flamingo Revolution: Albania Protests Escalate over Corruption & Kushner/Trump Luxury Resort

Student-led anti-corruption and cost-of-living protests in Albania are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, among other demands. Hundreds of injuries and arrests have been reported amid a violent police crackdown, along with widespread damage to public and private property. The student demands are an outgrowth of the "Flamingo Revolution," which erupted earlier this year in opposition to a luxury resort being developed on the ecologically sensitive Sazan Island. The planned resort is backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, President Trump's son-in-law and daughter, and has been fast-tracked by the Rama government.

"Students find no future in Albania," says Bora Mema, a founding member of the left-wing political party Lëvizja Bashkë, about the motivations behind the burgeoning pro-democracy movement. "Many of us have to migrate because the only development model that the government proposes is to clean the toilets of the rich and the mafia in luxurious resorts, like the one that Trump and Kushner and the national oligarchs and mafia in Albania are constructing."