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Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama reposted an AI video of himself in a leather miniskirt and bra on his Instagram profile, in an apparent swipe at influencers.
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“Whoever made this, well done,” he wrote in a post accompanying the video.
The video references remarks President Rama made at a June 7 public event in which he mocked bloggers and influencers who support ongoing protests against a controversial luxury development linked to President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kusher, some of which will be built on nature preserves.
In his speech, Rama claimed that many influencers earn money by promoting themselves on social media without paying taxes to the state.
“Bloggers should challenge each other, the blogger wearing the flamingo costume and the blogger wearing my costume, to see who wins,” Rama said.
Demonstrators carried cardboard cutouts of pink flamingos, one of the protected migratory bird species, to a rally in the capital Tirana.
Earlier, Prime Minister Rama claimed that influencers were mainly participating in the protests to attract attention and did not truly understand the situation.
The government says the development of the Adriatic coast will be transformative for the former communist country as it seeks to enter the luxury tourism market and push for membership in the European Union.
But the project, which straddles a protected island and coastal areas near Albania’s southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmentalists and critics of longtime Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.
This luxury project has two components. A coastal development in the Nalta Lagoon area, a wildlife sanctuary, and a small resort on nearby uninhabited Southern Island, a communist-era military base.
The development plans for hotels, apartments, vacation homes and a marina are linked to Mr. Kushner and Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
An investment company linked to Mr. Kushner was granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.
Albania has 450 kilometers of coastline and remained largely undeveloped during decades of communist rule.
Protest groups fear that parts of its pristine coastline will be taken over by powerful investors. Public outrage then escalated after a video showed an activist being dragged away by private security during a demonstration at the site.
The development is planned within a nature reserve, one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas and an important stopover site for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.
Since late May, excavators and other heavy equipment have entered the area to open access routes, dig sand, clear land between pine trees and install fencing.
Environmental groups in Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the effort, with one prominent local group accusing long-protected habitat of being “irreversibly destroyed”.
Additional sources of information • AP
