The Five Demands: What Albanians Are Fighting For — and Why None of Them Are Extreme

Prime Minister Edi Rama has tried to paint the protest movement as radical, manipulated, and extreme. Let's look at what the protesters actually want — because the five demands are among the most reasonable democratic requests Albania has produced in a generation.

DEMAND ONE: THE RESIGNATION OF THE RAMA GOVERNMENT

This is the most politically charged demand, and the one the government dismisses most aggressively. But the call for government resignation is not a coup demand or an anti-democratic request. It is the standard democratic response to a government that has lost the confidence of a significant portion of its population through demonstrable failures of governance, accountability and law. The specific grounds cited are: corruption at the ministerial level (incinerator scandal, Balluku affair), the secret approval of a $6 billion land deal affecting protected areas without any democratic mandate or public process, the failure to publish permits and environmental assessments for an active construction project in a legally protected wetland, and the use of private security against peaceful protesters while police stood by. These are not manufactured grievances. They are documented failures of the most basic expectations of democratic government.

DEMAND TWO: A TRANSITIONAL TECHNICAL GOVERNMENT

The demand is not for a specific political party to take over. It is for a non-partisan technical government — a caretaker administration staffed by professionals rather than party politicians — to manage the transition until new elections can be held under conditions of transparency and independence. This is a model with precedent in the region and in European democratic practice. It is a moderate, constitutional response to a situation where the current government is seen as too compromised to supervise a fair electoral process.

DEMAND THREE: CANCELLATION OF THE ZVËRNEC PROJECT

The Zvërnec coastal resort project — the Vjosa-Narta component of the Kushner deal — was approved and construction began without: (a) a completed environmental impact assessment; (b) published development permits; (c) any public consultation process; (d) any public contract or agreement; (e) any independent technical review. In Albanian law, and under EU environmental standards that Albania is obligated to align with, these documents are not optional for a development in a protected area. They are legal requirements. Asking for them to be completed before construction proceeds is not anti-development extremism. It is the application of the rule of law. The demand to cancel the project is actually a demand to revert to legality: no EIA, no permit, no build.

DEMAND FOUR: REPEAL THE 2024 PROTECTED AREAS LAW AMENDMENTS

In 2024, Rama's government pushed through amendments to the Law on Protected Areas. These amendments weakened the legal protections around protected landscapes, making it easier to approve development inside them. Environmental organisations — including PPNEA, EcoAlbania, and AOS — argued at the time that the law changes were specifically designed to enable the Kushner resort and similar projects. The Albanian Constitutional Court received a formal challenge to the amendments. The European Parliament resolution of June 17 explicitly called for these amendments to be repealed. Repealing a law that weakens environmental protection is not extreme. It is restoring the legal framework that existed before a government specifically changed it to help a private investor.

DEMAND FIVE: REPEAL THE CULTURAL HERITAGE LAW AMENDMENTS

Alongside the protected areas law changes, the government also amended the Law on Cultural Heritage in ways that critics say weaken protection for historical and cultural sites. Zvernec, the site of the resort construction, is near a historic monastery on a lagoon island — a site of significant cultural and religious heritage for the Albanian Orthodox community. The cultural heritage law amendments reduce the legal barriers to development near such sites. Repealing them restores protections that existed before the government weakened them.

WHY THESE DEMANDS ARE REASONABLE

The protesters are not asking for the country to stay undeveloped. They are not asking for foreign investment to be banned. They are not asking for politics to stop. They are asking for: (1) accountability when government fails; (2) a fair process for choosing the next government; (3) the rule of law to apply to a project that bypassed it; (4) the restoration of two laws that were specifically weakened to enable that project. These are the foundations of democratic governance. They are not extreme. They are necessary.