Original article (in Croatian) was published on 24/6/2026; Author: Anja Vladisavljević
Social media has been flooded with videos of the protests, but some clips circulating online are not from Albania.
For more than three weeks, Albanians have been gathering in the streets to oppose the destruction of the protected Vjosa Narta landscape, one of the last intact coastal ecosystems in the Mediterranean. The area is under threat from a massive luxury tourism development backed by foreign investors, including the family of the President of the United States.
Social media has been flooded with footage of the protests. However, among the circulating videos are clips that are not from Albania.
“Albania, protest against Trump’s investment,” reads the caption of a Facebook Reel published on June 8, 2026 (archived here).
The Reel consists of two clips: the first shows a large crowd walking along a beach, while the second shows people gathered in a huge city square, with a cathedral and historic buildings visible in the background.
The first video was filmed in Galicia, Spain
The first clip, filmed by the sea and the beach, does not actually appear to show a protest. No one in the crowd is carrying banners or the red Albanian flags that are visible in almost every video or photograph taken during the recent protests in Albania (1, 2, 3, 4). In addition, a large number of people are wearing blue-and-white shirts, while only a single blue-and-white flag is visible.
Using Google’s reverse image search tool, we found that similar footage had been published in late May 2026 on social media profiles supporting the Spanish football club Deportivo de La Coruña, based in Galicia (1, 2, 3). The club’s colours match those worn by the people in the first clip of the Reel.
In addition, the Riazor Stadium is located close to the beach and the coastline, and we were able to identify numerous features visible in the video using Google Street View.
The original video (in higher resolution, making it clearer that it depicts a gathering of football supporters) was published on May 31 on the Facebook page “Riazor.org” (named after the stadium in A Coruña). The page description reads: “Keeping you informed about RC Deportivo every day for more than a decade.”
On that day, Deportivo played against Las Palmas. Having ended a long absence from Spain’s top division (La Liga), the club’s supporters celebrated the achievement in the streets, as documented by numerous videos from the scene (1, 2, 3).
The second video is from Kraków
The second clip in the Reel also raised suspicions because the setting of the alleged protest does not resemble the main square in Tirana or any other Albanian city. As in the first case, the gathering looks much more like an assembly of football supporters than a protest.
We established that the footage was filmed in Kraków, Poland, because it contains a landmark that is difficult to overlook. The video clearly shows St. Mary’s Basilica, one of the city’s best-known landmarks, located on the edge of Kraków’s Main Market Square. In addition to the basilica, other surrounding buildings visible in the footage can also be identified.
Judging by other material published on social media, the footage shows a football supporters’ gathering, with numerous similarities to videos recorded after Wisła Kraków defeated Pogoń Siedlce on May 24, 2026 (1, 2, 3, 4).
In conclusion, neither part of the Facebook Reel shows the ongoing protests in Albania. The first clip was filmed in Spain, while the second was filmed in Poland. We therefore rate this claim as false.
