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Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reposted an AI video of himself wearing a leather mini skirt and bra on his Instagram profile in an apparent swipe against influencers.
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“Whoever made this, well done,” he wrote in the post accompanying the video.
The video refers to remarks Rama made during a public event on 7 June, where he mocked bloggers and influencers who supported ongoing protests against a controversial luxury development linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kusher, part of which is due to be built in a conservation area.
In that speech, Rama argued that many influencers make money by promoting themselves on social media while paying no taxes to the state.
Rama said that “bloggers should challenge each other, one dressed as a flamingo and another dressed as me and see who wins.”
Protesters have carried cardboard cut-outs of pink flamingos, one of the protected migratory bird species, at rallies in the capital Tirana.
Earlier, Rama claimed that influencers joined the protests mainly for attention and lacked a real understanding of the situation.
The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership.
But the venture, spanning a protected island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The luxury project has two components: a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area, which is a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a communist-era military base.
The planned development of hotels, apartments, villas and a marina is linked to Kushner and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.
Albania has 450 kilometres of coast that remained largely underdeveloped during decades of communist rule.
Protest groups fear the sections of that pristine coastline could be snapped up by powerful investors. And public anger grew after video showed an activist being dragged by a private security guard while demonstrating at the site.
The development is planned within a nature reserve and one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas, a key stopover for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.
Since late May, excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing.
Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being “irreversibly destroyed.”
Additional sources • AP
