Bulldozers, barbed-wire fences and security guards dragging protesters across the sand are not the images Albania hoped would dominate headlines just days after it received positive signals from Brussels over progress in its EU accession talks.
Yet that is precisely what happened in the the Narta Lagoon area, a protected landscape on the country's southern coast.
At the center of the dispute is the proposed Zvernec Peninsula development, a tourism project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. What started as a fight over construction in a protected area has grown into a wider debate about development, environmental protection and Albania's future in Europe.
Just 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the city of Vlora, developers are planning what could become one of the largest tourism projects in Albania's history. The company behind it says it could exceed €4 billion ($4.6 billion) and create more than 10,000 jobs. Prime Minister Edi Rama has described it as a strategic investment that could help move Albania into the top tier of global tourism.
Protected landscape under pressure
