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Protesters in Serbia rally against real
estate project with Trump son-in-law Kushner
[March 25, 2025]
By IVANA BZGANOVIC
BELGRADE,
Serbia (AP) — Thousands of protesters rallied in Serbia on Monday
against plans to turn a former army headquarters destroyed in a NATO
bombing into a luxury complex financed by the firm of U.S. President
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The
protesters in Belgrade demanded that its former status as a heritage
site be restored and that plans for the development project be scrapped.
The Serbian government last year approved a multi-million-dollar
contract with Kushner to build the complex, including a 99-year lease on
the land in the heart of Belgrade. |
People take part protest rally in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, March 24,
2025, against a real estate development project that will be financed by
the firm of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at the site of the
former Yugoslav army headquarters destroyed in a U.S.-led NATO bombing
campaign in 1999. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) |
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Monday's rally was part of an anti-corruption movement in Serbia
that started after a collapse in November of a concrete canopy
at a train station in Serbia's north, which killed 16 people.
Critics blamed the crash on government corruption, negligence
and disrespect of construction safety rules during renovation.
Monday also marked Remembrance Day for the victims of the 78-day
bombing campaign that started on March 24, 1999. Serbs are still
angry over the U.S.-led NATO air war, launched to stop
Belgrade’s crackdown against separatist ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo.
The bombed-out former military compound has become a symbol of
resistance. The development at the site would feature a Trump
hotel, luxury apartments, office spaces and shops, along with a
memorial for the victims of the bombing.
Serbia’s architects, engineers and opposition parties have
opposed the agreement with Kushner, while President Aleksandar
Vucic and his government have defended the plan as a way to
modernize the capital.
The almost daily demonstrations in Serbia have come to reflect
wider discontent with over the decade-long rule of Vucic and his
right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, accused by critics of
stifling democratic freedoms and fueling graft and nepotism.
Vucic has been a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump. He
has also nurtured close relations with China and Russia and
refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow, despite
formally seeking Serbia's entry into the European Union.
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