Rama responds to the American senator who reacted to Zvërnec
2026-06-09 15:25:18
TiranaPost
Prime Minister Edi Rama has responded to US Senator Bernie Sanders, who reacted regarding the developments in Zvërnec.
In a reaction on X, Rama writes that Albania should not be treated as part of domestic political debates in the United States.
The Prime Minister's reaction:
With all due respect, Senator, Albania is a country, not a line in an American political debate.
I sincerely appreciate your interest, but the facts on the ground are somewhat different from the headlines. And when headlines become the primary source of understanding, half-truths tend to turn into bigger and bigger lies by the day, amplified by the very platforms whose distorting power you yourself have spent so much time raising public awareness about.
(The fact that less than 10,000 protesters in your post somehow became 100,000 is perhaps the least harmful amplification of outrage, among many others.)
There is still no approved project, no building permit, and no final design. What exists today is a planning process involving some of the world's most renowned architects, landscape designers, environmental experts, and social impact consultants, who are working on a vision for sustainable elite tourism, with measurable environmental benefits, more green spaces, more trees, and stronger biodiversity outcomes.
Disagreement is legitimate.
Environmental monitoring and review are welcome.
This is how democracies should function.
But declaring something an environmental disaster before it exists is something else entirely.
What will be built on the Albanian coast will be determined by our vision, our laws, our institutions, and will be debated by our own citizens. But it will never be held hostage to the fear of dreaming more, thinking more, and investing more.
Our challenge is not to choose between nature and development, but to prove that nature can regenerate and development can be reinvented by building with nature and not against it, to the benefit of both people and the environment.
We welcome serious investors who come to build, to create jobs, to raise living standards and to respect our rules. What we do not need is imported indignation, ideological reflexes or the transformation of Albania into someone else's political instrument.
Facts first. Always.
Because Albania is not a backdrop for foreign political battles.
It is a small, but proud and free country, making its own choices and determining its own future.
And with all that said, I hope you will remember Albania even after the headlines have passed. In fact, I hope you will come and see for yourself our beautiful country, which is facing the historic challenge of soon becoming a proud member of the European Union, where no project that affects nature can move forward without meeting some of the strictest environmental standards, assessments, and legal requirements in the democratic world.
This is precisely why we should trust facts, institutions, and due process more than headlines, assumptions, and viral outrage.
And perhaps, since you've spent so many years warning about the dangers of disinformation, you might appreciate the fact that reality deserves at least as much opportunity to be heard as the stories that are told about it.
Let me say that all of this is a good reason to invite you to be our guest in Albania, where, as is inscribed in the ancient Albanian Code of Honor, our homes belong to God and Friend.
