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Serbia’s parliament on Friday moved to fast-track the demolition of the bombed-out Yugoslav Army headquarters in central Belgrade, the site of a proposed luxury hotel backed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The redevelopment is particularly sensitive in Serbia as the mid-20th-century modernist complex was partly destroyed during NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign that ended the Kosovo war.
The public is divided over plans linked to Kushner’s Miami-based investment firm, Affinity Partners, to redevelop the site into a high-rise hotel.
Affinity Partners signed a 99-year land deal with the Serbian government last year to redevelop the site, shortly after its “cultural asset” status was revoked.
The project stalled in May as suspicions grew that a public official had forged documents used to lift the site’s protection — investigations into the allegations are still going on.
But a special law voted through parliament on Friday and earlier published on the parliament’s website classifies the redevelopment as urgent, which would require state institutions to issue permits and approvals without delay.
Lawmakers backed the move with 130 votes in favour and 40 against.
President Aleksandar Vucic, who has hosted Kushner several times in Belgrade, has given his personal support to the scheme.
One of Affinity’s partners in the project is UAE company Eagle Hills, which was connected to the redevelopment of a large part of Belgrade’s riverfront — a scheme that triggered a public outcry in 2016.
“The General Staff building has been bombed and left in ruins for 26 years,” Miljenko Jovanov, a lawmaker from Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party, told parliament during the debate this week.
Jovanov said he supported “good relations with the US, which many try to hinder”.
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