Serbia’s parliament has approved a special law to fast-track the demolition of the bombed-out Yugoslav Army headquarters in central Belgrade paving the way for a luxury hotel project backed by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
The mid-20th-century modernist complex, partly destroyed during NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign that ended the Kosovo war, has long been considered a cultural landmark. Its redevelopment has sparked division among Serbians.
Kushner’s Miami-based investment firm, Affinity Partners, signed a 99-year lease with the Serbian government last year to redevelop the site after its protected “cultural asset” status was revoked.
However, the project stalled earlier this year amid investigations into allegations that official documents lifting the site’s protection were forged.
The new legislation, published on parliament’s website before Friday’s vote, classifies the redevelopment as an “urgent project.”
This status compels state institutions to issue all necessary permits and approvals without delay. The motion passed with 130 votes in favor and 40 against.
President Aleksandar Vučić, who has met Kushner several times in Belgrade, strongly supports the development. One of Affinity’s partners in the project is Eagle Hills, a UAE-based company previously involved in the controversial Belgrade Waterfront project, which faced public backlash in 2016.
“The General Staff building has been bombed and left in ruins for 26 years,”
said Miljenko Jovanov, a lawmaker from Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party.
“We support good relations with the U.S., which many try to hinder.”
Opposition MP Radomir Lazović of the Green-Left Front accused the government of trying to demolish the building under false pretenses, arguing that the hotel project is being wrongly presented as a matter of “national interest.”
Architects and heritage experts have voiced concern, urging preservation of the structure as a memorial to the victims of the NATO bombing.
“This is a unique architectural masterpiece that can be safely reconstructed and should remain in public use,”said architect Miljan Salata from the Association of Architects of Serbia.
Estela Radonjić Živkov, from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, warned that the law sets a “dangerous precedent,” enabling cultural landmarks to lose protection and be demolished for commercial gain.
The move comes amid ongoing public dissatisfaction with Vučić’s government. Protests have continued over a fatal accident at a newly renovated train station in Novi Sad last year, widely blamed on corruption.
A small crowd gathered outside parliament during Friday’s vote, supporting a grieving mother on hunger strike to demand justice for her son and 15 others killed in the tragedy.
AFP
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