Dutch MEP Accuses Albania's Prime Minister of 'Sneaky and Disloyal' Tactics Over Trump-Linked Resort

A Dutch member of the European Parliament has accused Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, of "sneaky and disloyal" practices as he works to push through a luxury resort linked to the Trump family.

The accusation comes from Tineke Strik, who spoke about the project in remarks reported by Dezeen on 22 October 2026. Strik told The Guardian that Rama was avoiding EU environmental rules to build a tourist resort on Albania's Adriatic coast. She also claimed his government intends to finish the approval steps for the resort before Albania is legally bound by European Union standards.

Albania is working towards joining the EU, the bloc of European countries with shared laws and rules. Strik's central charge is that Rama is trying to help bring to life the luxury resort plans of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the daughter and son-in-law of former US president Donald Trump. "I accuse Rama of serving his own interests and the interests of Kushner and not the interests of the environment and the Albanian people," she said, according to Dezeen.

The project would bring thousands of luxury villas to several sites, including Sazan Island and the Vjosa-Narta wetland, a area of marshes and lagoons on the coast. Sazan is a small island off Albania's coast with no permanent residents. It is also the country's only island. The Guardian has valued the resort at €4 billion, and described it as the largest investment the country has ever seen.

The plan has run into a legal problem. Albania passed a law that lets so-called "strategic investors", developers the government treats as priority projects, build inside protected landscapes. In June, the European Parliament pressed Albania to repeal that law. A Guardian report in July warned that the resort plans put Albania's EU membership bid at risk.

Opposition to the project has been building since the spring. In June, protesters clashed with police over the plans, and Rama said he would push ahead despite the demonstrations. Reuters reported that the protests that followed were mostly peaceful for months before turning sharper this autumn. Thousands of student-led protesters have since accused officials of corruption. On 15 October, Rama said he would not resign, according to Reuters.

On 19 October, The Guardian ran a report under the headline "Albania accused of rushing through Trump-linked resort in formerly protected landscape." That headline points to the core dispute: whether the land's protections were loosened to make way for the development.

For people following the story from outside Albania, the stakes are concrete. The resort would decide who can use and build on a stretch of wild coastline, and whether a wetland and an island are developed at all. It also tests whether a candidate country's promises to follow EU environmental rules hold up while it seeks membership.

Rama has been firm in public. He has said the project will go ahead, and that he will stay in office. Strik's accusations, and the protests that followed them, now sit at the centre of a dispute that reaches well beyond Albania's borders.