For nine days Tirana hasn't slept. Every evening demonstrators block the main boulevard in what they're already calling the "flamingo revolution", demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. And instead of answering the demands, Rama found the blame where you'd least expect it - in Iran.

The trigger for the revolt is a luxury tourism project worth 1.4 billion euros, planned for Zvernec near Vlora and the island of Sazan - flamingo habitats. Behind the project stands Affinity Partners, the investment fund of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law. Citizens are up in arms over the absence of public debate, the lack of any environmental impact assessment, and the lack of transparency when a foreign investor gains access to coastal land.

Instead of listening to the people, Rama spoke of a "hybrid war" waged by Tehran and accused Iran of spreading disinformation about the project. Iran's reply was mocking: the spokesperson of its ministry called it "complete nonsense" and added they would "probably also say the flamingos themselves are Iranian secret agents".

But the most bizarre part is yet to come. On social media, Rama shared AI-generated videos in which he himself appears dressed in a leather miniskirt and a T-shirt, like an influencer reporting from the protests, with the comment: "Whoever made this deserves recognition." The prime minister of a country in crisis sharing AI parodies of himself - it's hard to invent a stronger symbol of how seriously he's taking the demands.

The European Commission has already warned that moves like this jeopardise Albania's prospects for EU membership, and anti-corruption prosecutors have opened investigations into the disputed ownership of the land. For the Balkan viewer the picture is painfully familiar: big foreign capital, local authorities looking the other way, and citizens left alone in the street to defend a stretch of coast. Has the story ever ended differently back home?