On Friday, the Serbian parliament approved a law that will allow the construction of a luxury hotel complex with the Trump logo in Belgrade. The complex is to be built on the site of the ruins of the building of the Yugoslav Ministry of Defense, which was bombed in 1999 during NATO raids. It was reported by the AP agency, writes TASR.
- The Serbian Parliament approved the law for the construction of Trump Tower in Belgrade.
- The project includes the construction of a luxury hotel on a historical site.
- Critics warn of the loss of cultural heritage due to construction.
- The falsification of documents related to the project is being investigated.
- The law was approved, despite protests from the opposition and experts.
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is behind the controversial Trump Tower Belgrade development project. His plan includes the construction of a complex worth half a billion dollars, which will include a hotel and apartments. The location where he is to grow up is considered in Serbia to be an unofficial memorial to the airstrikes that ended the war in Kosovo, as well as a monument to Yugoslav modernist architecture of the 20th century.
Investigation of falsification of documents
However, the entire project came to a halt in May after suspicions emerged that one of the officials had falsified the documents used to revoke the site’s conservation classification. The investigation into these allegations is ongoing.
However, a special law voted by the Serbian parliament on Friday classifies Kushner’s project as a building of state importance, meaning that state institutions will issue all necessary permits without delay. 130 deputies supported the law, 40 were against it.
Opposition MPs against the law
Opposition MP Marinika Tepičová declared that the government in Belgrade is sacrificing the country’s history just “to please Donald Trump”. “In a place where bombs once fell, now you plan to pour champagne,” she reproached the government.
This week, experts also called for the preservation of the dilapidated building as a monument and for its cultural value.
“We have a unique architectural and urban work in front of us,” pointed out architect Miljan Salata, a member of the Association of Architects of Serbia. He argued that “this building is safe, can be renovated and should remain in public use as a memorial to the victims of NATO bombing”.
A dangerous precedent
Estela Radonjičová Živkovová, a cultural heritage expert from the Serbian Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, warned that the adopted law creates a “dangerous precedent” that allows monuments to be stripped of protection, sold and demolished.
But President Aleksandar Vucic has repeatedly argued that Kushner’s project is necessary to improve relations with Washington, and has accused critics of trying to thwart “better relations with the Trump administration.”
Kushner’s Global Projects
Kushner, who has no official role in the White House but often advises his father-in-law, has closed several high-profile development projects around the world in recent years, including a luxury resort in Albania.
The private investment firm Affinity Partners, founded by Kushner, received a free 99-year lease from the Serbian government in 2022 for a plot of land intended for the construction of the aforementioned hotel complex in Belgrade.
One of Affinity’s partners in the project is Eagle Hills of the United Arab Emirates, which has been linked to the redevelopment of much of Belgrade’s waterfront, a project that sparked public outrage in 2016.
Protests against the government
Vučič’s government has been under the pressure of mass protests for a year, which broke out after the collapse of the superstructure at the newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad. Responsibility for this tragedy, which claimed 16 lives, is attributed by many Serbs to corruption in the government and poor management of the country.
In its annual report this week on Serbia’s progress towards EU membership, the European Commission highlighted the slow pace of Belgrade’s anti-corruption and rule of law reforms.
