Protests in Tirana, Albania’s capital, against the government this month. Some Albanians worried that their cause was being hijacked by foreign activists. Credit.
Hameraldi Agolli/Associated Press Reporting from Tirana, Zvernec and Vlore, Albania For more than three weeks protesters have gathered peacefully in Tirana, the capital of Albania, cheered on by Americans who see them as plucky warriors against President Trump, Israel and the greed of the “1 percent.
” The protests were set off by public outrage over violent security guards at the site of a planned coastal development financed by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and investors from the Gulf with an estimated cost of more than $4 billion.
For Americans on the left, Albanians are resisting Trump family corruption and so-called billionaire vultures.
Conspiracy theorists on the right are embracing a different theory; they see pushback against Israel and supposed plans for what they call a “new Epstein island” off the southern coast of one of Europe’s poorest nations. Albanians actually taking part in the protests, however, beg to differ.
“Nobody here is protesting against Trump or Israel,” said Elis Kodra, 33, who turned up with his girlfriend for a recent rally with several thousand people outside the office of Albania’s beleaguered prime minister, Edi Rama.
“We are protesting against everything else,” he added, complaining that Albania has been ruled since the collapse of Communism 35 years ago by the same self-serving politicians who rotate in and out office, give state contracts to their friends in business and pay little attention to the economic and other grievances of ordinary citizens.
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