BELGRADE: Hundreds protested on Tuesday against a plan to tear down a former army headquarters in the Serbian capital Belgrade to make way for a luxury hotel complex, a project linked to US President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The student-led demonstration came four days after parliament backed a special law classifying the redevelopment of the bombed-out Yugoslav Army headquarters as an urgent project – speeding up the process of getting permits.
The plan by Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump and a former senior adviser to Donald Trump, is sensitive as the building was hit during US-led Nato strikes to end the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
Kushner’s Affinity Partners signed a 99-year lease for the site in 2024, shortly after officials withdrew its protected status as a “cultural asset.”
However, suspicions that documents used to lift the site’s protection had been falsified led to an investigation and the suspension of the Affinity project in May.
“They can now legally destroy this building, but we will not allow it,” student demonstrator Valentina Moravcevic told N1 television during the rally.
“We are here today to give them a warning and to tell them that our history and cultural heritage are important to us.”
A second partner in the project is UAE-based property developer Eagle Hills, already involved in the redevelopment of Belgrade’s riverside – another project that has stoked public outcries.
President Aleksandar Vucic, who is battling rumbling discontent over a deadly railway station disaster in November last year that many Serbians blame on corruption, defended the Affinity project on Tuesday.
“We are giving the land, and they are providing an investment of at least 650 million euros (US$753 million), a huge investment for our country,” he told pro-government broadcaster Pink TV, stressing it was not a sale but a long-term lease.
“This will increase the value of everything in Belgrade, further attract tourists … it will be worth over one billion euros right away.”
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
