{"id":537390,"date":"2026-07-07T11:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537390\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:47:12","slug":"kushners-e4bn-adriatic-resort-is-snowballing-into-a-political-crisis-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537390\/","title":{"rendered":"Kushners\u2019 \u20ac4bn Adriatic resort is snowballing into a political crisis \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since the \u201cLondon protocol\u201d of 1830 \u2013 signed by Britain, France and Russia \u2013 which designated Greece<\/a> as a sovereign, independent nation, the impetus has been twofold: modernisation, to bring the comparatively backward, rural state into the liberal, democratic ambience of the West; and territorial enlargement, from the original small land-base, to embrace as many ethnic Greeks as possible. <\/p>\n

The fact that the protocol (and several subsequent treaties) was guaranteed by the major powers indicated that the fledgling state would be subject to the geopolitics of the Mediterranean and Balkan region. That situation recurred with the financial crisis of the 2010s with the forceful intervention of the European Union<\/a> and the International Monetary Fund<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Greece finally achieved its territorial \u201cMegali Idea\u201d (or \u201cGreat Project\u201d) in 1947 with the acquisition of the Dodecanese islands (with their capital in Rhodes), ownership of which is now the subject of bitter disputes between Greece and their former ruler Turkey. <\/p>\n

Membership of the then EEC in 1981, and adhesion to the euro zone in 2001, were as necessary for Greece as they are today for the neighbouring Balkan states Albania<\/a> and North Macedonia, which are candidates for EU membership. <\/p>\n

In the run-up to EEC membership Greek prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis declared unequivocally \u201cGreece belongs to the West\u201d, voicing the clear imperative of democratisation, economic viability and a culture attuned to western rather than eastern ways of thinking. The essential \u201cGreekness\u201d (ellenik\u00f3tita) would undergo a personality change in the way Greeks perceived their \u201cfilotim\u00eda\u201d or self-esteem. <\/p>\n

Languages, cultures, identities, ethnicities, faiths are vulnerable to the concept of \u201cprogress\u201d, where progress involves both material and cultural change in the pursuit of economic development. <\/p>\n

\"OceanisOceanis beach at Vouliagmeni, 25km south of Athens. Photograph: Spyros Bakalis\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Modernisation continues to be the elusive aim of most influential sectors in Greek society, in an economy with minimal significant manufacture, lack of financial services and a top-heavy reliance on tourism which, it was recently reported, represents more than 30 per cent of GDP \u2013 an alarming statistic which many see as a key indicator of modernisation: an unstoppable demand and an equally unstoppable supply. <\/p>\n

Last month the watchdog Bank of Greece warned of the danger not only of \u201covertourism\u201d but of climate change as a factor in the future of tourism. This is a warning that the industry, and its national overseers, cannot ignore, given the relevance of tourism to the economy.<\/p>\n

Tourism itself is a riven industry, divided between the profit motive of individual providers and the massive managerial responsibility at national level of providing the resources necessary to sustain tourism, such as water, waste disposal and the infrastructure of trains, roads, ferries and airports. A recent survey revealed that tourists who hired cars expressed serious criticism of the state of Greek roads.<\/p>\n

Modernisation has led almost inevitably to urbanisation, with not only a withering of traditional ways of life but also a neglect of agriculture. A recent study showed that almost half the agricultural workforce is aged over 65. Little wonder that, back in 2012, Michael Noonan suggested that feta cheese was the only thing shoppers knew about Greece. The situation has hardly improved. Only 15 per cent of agricultural produce is exported, while \u2013 hard to believe \u2013 Greece remains a net importer of vegetables such as tomatoes. Olive oil, one of the quintessential Greek products, hardly figures in the export statistics.<\/p>\n

Modernisation and democratisation are also essential in the ex-communist Balkan states. In Albania, prime minister Edi Rama sees tourism as an essential prop in the country\u2019s attempt to improve its profile as a primitive tribal society with almost medieval social imperatives such as the \u201csworn virgin\u201d observance, by which a woman legally and socially becomes a man in order to inherit property.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe beach at Dhermi in southern Albania during last month’s heatwave. Photograph: Armend Nimani\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

A microcosm of the dilemma this presents is the current plan to build a luxury \u20ac4 billion resort on the Adriatic coast at Zvernec, part-funded by Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Planning documents for the resort, according to the Sunday Times, include suggestions for a marina that could hold 350 superyachts, concert venues, a casino, an equestrian centre, yacht club, water park and \u201clagoon gardens\u201d spread over the equivalent of 14 football pitches.<\/p>\n

Protests, which began locally as an environmental concern for the biodiversity of the region, have now become political and global, with mass rallies in Tirana, the capital city, amid strident calls for Rama\u2019s resignation. MEPs have since warned Albania that EU accession talks are at risk if the government does not \u201cchange course\u201d. This unprecedented political dimension of the problem indicates how a local reaction can escalate to embarrass a politician bent on modernisation. <\/p>\n

Rama, Albania\u2019s go-ahead prime minister since 2013, is fully behind this project, describing Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump<\/a>, as \u201cnice humble people\u201d. Rama calls the project \u201cthe jewel in the crown\u201d of Albanian tourism, which he is \u201cproud to contribute to Europe\u201d. He pours scorn on the environmental protests as anathema to Albania\u2019s need to become modern, not unlike his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis in very similar circumstances.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters carry a giant banner which reads ‘The end has come. Albania is not for sale’ as they demonstrate in front of the Albanian prime minister’s office against plans for a luxury resort near a protected natural area. Photograph: Adnan Beci\/AFP\/Getty Images \"AA protester destroys the windscreen of a police car as violent clashes erupted between police and demonstrators on the sidelines of a demonstration against the Kushners’ proposed luxury resort development. Photograph: Adnan Beci\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Since the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, the EU and the Balkan states have become mutually attractive, with the incentive of financial wellbeing as a primary goal, to the possible detriment of identity and culture. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since the \u201cLondon protocol\u201d of 1830 \u2013 signed by Britain, France and Russia \u2013 which designated Greece…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11551,72,969,2917,61,60,133230],"class_list":["post-537390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-albania","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-greece","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ivanka-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}