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After signing a 99-year lease agreement, Serbia’s parliament began debating a plan accelerate development of a controversial luxury complex in Belgrade.
the premises were proposed by investment company of jared kushnerSon-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Serbian official and Kushner’s US-based Affinity Global Development The agreement was signed in May 2024, allowing the company to overhaul two buildings that once housed the headquarters of the Yugoslavian People’s Army.
The project, which will include a hotel, apartments, shops and office space, sparked widespread protests among many who see the old headquarters, which was damaged in a 1999 NATO bombing campaign, as a culturally significant tribute to those who died and a monument to Yugoslavian-era modernist architecture.
Nevertheless, the Serbian government has moved forward. In November 2024, it removed buildings from their protected cultural heritage label and this week, once the debate on the draft law is over, it will vote on whether to speed up the procedures for obtaining construction licenses.
Lawyers said it was rare for such a specific project to attract such parliamentary attention.
Savo Manojlovic, a legal expert and leader of the opposition Crni Promeni party, said the draft law “suspends all standards related to the protection of cultural property”. He said he would ask Serbia’s Constitutional Court whether the bill is constitutional.
Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, founded Affinity Global Development in 2021 after leaving his job as a White House aide. The investment firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Serbia’s ruling party has said Kushner’s project is extremely important, but did not say why.
In an interview on local television, President Aleksandar Vucic said that he had demanded that a memorial be built to the victims of the NATO bombing, adding: “And now they (Affinity Global Development) are building it with their own money.”
The voting is taking place at a time of turmoil in Serbia.
Vucic has faced mass protests in the wake of a station roof collapse in November 2024, which killed 16 people. Meanwhile, Serbia’s sole, Russian-owned oil refinery is under US sanctions, raising concerns about fuel supplies to the Balkan country this winter.