The so-called Pink Flamingo Revolution, which from May 31st until 6 pm, has been animating Albanian squares, particularly Scanderbeg Square, where crowds gather daily to protest the plundering of the country by international investors, aided by a corrupt and colluding political class, who seek to exploit its tourism resources and devastate the region . It has been especially surprising in Italy, where we are accustomed to viewing the population of neighboring countries as eternally hungry, dominated by powerful criminal organizations, and applying all those clichés that create a generalized judgment on immigrants, ignoring the fact that Albanians have been in Italy not since the historic landing from the Vlora River in Bari on August 8, 1991, but for 500 years, where they have built perfectly integrated communities and fought in the wars of the Risorgimento.
But today's Albania is something more complex than that, deserving of our attention. To fully understand what is happening, we must consider its development and the many problems plaguing the Balkans, a strategic area for Italy. Albania is a complex country, boasting a beautiful landscape, rich in archaeological sites (yet undeveloped) and natural beauty. It represents a coveted target for speculators from around the world, and is now under siege, aided by a corrupt political class, an inextricable network of clienteles, and a well-organized and widespread criminal underworld. Meanwhile, a civil society that until recently seemed silent and passive, and which until now has endured and fought in vain, divided between Edi Rama, a self-styled socialist, and Sali Berischa, a self-styled democrat and the eternal president of the eponymous party, is rebelling.One of the many demonstrations in front of the Government headquarters
The regime, for that is what it is, is coming to an end. The change began suddenly, thanks to 2,000 pink flamingos, and surprised everyone, including the Albanian government.
With the groundwork initially paved by the approval of the law on cultural heritage, followed by the amendments to the law on protected areas in 2024, which reduced the size of protected areas, the path was believed to be paved for tourism development by completing the supporting legal framework inaugurated in 2015. This framework had introduced the legal status of strategic investor, intended to attract large-scale investments to stimulate the country's economic development, but in reality, it legally enabled the plundering of Albanian territory, handing it over to international speculation. The status of "strategic investor" created a system of privileges for companies and individuals, with special access to public lands, coastlines, tourist areas, and assets of public interest that, thanks to the previous Albanian communist regime, belonged to the population. In January 2025, Kushner obtained the status of "strategic investor."
Because of this law, many areas in Albania have become the subject of conflict and dispute, including Rrjoll, in Velipoja province, a green belt connecting the Buna delta with the Shëngjin dune system. Following amendments to the law on protected areas, tourism projects are now permitted, including the "Blue Borgo" resort. The lagoon overlooking the archaeological ruins of the city of Bhutrinto is also a source of protest among the population. The land on which the planned tourism facilities are located or are planned, when not publicly owned, belongs to local clans with strong and established influence in Parliament.
The stakes
Initially, the protesters took to the streets to defend the Zvërnec natural oasis and the adjacent lagoon from devastation and privatization. However, when they saw that the area had been surrounded by a fence preventing access and that work was proceeding within it with unprecedented speed and efficiency by Albanian standards, they, and not only Albanians, took to the streets in ever greater numbers. Subsequently, the protesters, men and women of all walks of life, cited among their reasons for protest the catastrophic state of education, dominated by state-funded private initiatives, to the detriment of the public education system; the continuing depreciation of pensions, which are extremely low; the degradation of public health services to the benefit of private, largely funded and facilitated, providers; and demands for better living conditions. They also cited the construction of hydroelectric power plants such as those in Zall Gjoçaj, Kurdari, Thirrë, and Skavica, which are devastating the country. They denounced a system of government based on the power of an economic oligarchy that is part of the political system, organized crime, and the manipulations of political and clientelist clans, who systematically channel consensus across the country through vote theft. A glance at the electoral results of the parties participating in parliamentary elections reveals the proliferation of small political groups or personal parties that, representing special interests, side with the two major parties, demanding a high price for their parliamentary support.
Those who invest in Albania know that to do so, they need a local sponsor. Even international contracts for the implementation of projects funded by the European Union require an Albanian partner to be involved in the project's execution. This partner is tasked with acting as a mediator with the institutions, receiving a kickback on the profits in exchange. This management technique has led to the failure of projects to enhance archaeological sites such as Apollonia and Bylis, and leaves Bhutan in a worrying state of decay, where an unbearable stench emanates from the toilets built on the Acropolis, while the small museum is flooded with sewage. Edi Rama, along with the opposition, is one of the main perpetrators of this system, and the main beneficiary.
For years, the two cronies, he and Berischa, have happily divided up Albania between them, alternating power. At the end of the day, Rama emerged as the more solid and unscrupulous one, the one who managed to secure a series of connections, not least with Giorgia Meloni, whom he stubbornly pays homage to, bowing to her arrival in Albania, hosting her on vacation, and granting part of Albanian territory to build the monstrosity of the Shëngjin and Gjadër hotspots, a place of detention for repatriates. He believes that in a few years, in 2030 to be precise, Albania is expected to join the European Union, and then everything will have to be reconsidered. Rama unscrupulously believes that detaining migrants on behalf of Meloni is a price worth paying and is in Albania's best interests.
What Rama failed to realize was Albania's strategic position in the Balkans, its coastline guarding the Strait of Otranto, the ambitions of many rising powers, first and foremost Turkey, with whom he has flirted for years, to establish themselves in Albania, and the strategic role of capital investments in a country that, by establishing itself and generating profits, ties it to interests that will then be defended militarily. In an increasingly militarized world, Edi Rama believes he is being cunning and playing a crucial role in the future, challenging balances of power in the Balkans.
In his own small way, he too, like Israel, with whom he does business and supports, aims for a greater Albania, aware of Kosovo's institutional fragility and well aware that he needs solid alliances to aspire to annex it to the Albanian area. For this reason, faced with the crisis of his political power, he fuels the myth of a conspiracy and Greek claims over southern Albania-historical claims, certainly, but currently completely unrealistic.
There's a good chance that a game bigger than Rama is being played in Albania, and that he and his government will end up being the sacrificial victims of broader geostrategic policies that Rama absolutely does not control and will never be able to control.
With greater awareness than he, the Albanian population seems to have begun to grasp the situation their country faces, at the crossroads between growing Turkish influence, long entrenched in the country, and the demands of an increasingly invasive and rapacious European Union. The European Union, for its part, has absolutely no policy for the Mediterranean, but is obsessed with confrontation and conflict with Russia and aspires to expand eastward in the hope of colonizing a Russia fragmented by the conflict with Ukraine, which is supposed to provide it with desperately needed energy and raw materials. Albania is a flea in the European landscape and can be crushed at any moment, as it has been throughout history: Rama should know this, but he is foaming at the mouth at the prospect of lucrative profits. This obsession is driving him mad and will plunge him into the abyss.
GL
https://www.ucadi.org/2026/07/23/albania-tra-crisi-di-regime-e-rinnovamento/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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