“Michigan is home to one of the strongest Albanian hearts in America,” Rama said at the start of his remarks.

Referring to protests over the planned Zvernec project, which have adopted the flamingos of the Narta Lagoon as their symbol, Rama recalled a case in Michigan several years ago when a group of goose hunters first spotted a flamingo.

He said the U.S. bird-recording authority officially certified the sighting as an extremely rare occurrence.

“But as you know, this summer the flamingo became Albania’s most popular figure. It left the lagoon, came to Tirana, took over the boulevards, screens and digital spaces, and attracted attention around the world,” Rama said.

He said that until a few years ago, few would have imagined that such a bird could put Albania at the centre of an international debate over nature, development, tourism and “Trumpism.”

“Beyond the latter, which helped globalise the Zvërnec flamingo, the June protests has been significant because they attracted both public attention and support, including from Albanians in the diaspora,” Rama added.

The government head said damage to nature and wildlife in Albania had in the past failed to generate a strong public response.

He attributed the change to rising expectations and a growing belief that Albania could do more.

“Today, when many things have changed, Albanians have begun to live with the idea that ‘there can be something better’. And it was precisely this new attitude of society that the protest cemented,” Rama said.

“A society that demands more is a society that has risen, that has seen the horizon and no longer accepts lowering its gaze,” he added.

Rama concluded by calling for greater individual and social responsibility, saying that higher expectations of government and the state should be accompanied by higher expectations of oneself and respect for differing views.

“Precisely because we have learned to demand more from the government, the state and our country, we must also learn to demand more from ourselves, as part of the new Albanian society, especially in how we view one another when our views differ,” Rama said.

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