This story Global Voices Central & Eastern Europe originally appeared on Global Voices on November 26, 2025
On November 7, 2025, the Serbian Parliament passed a special law enabling Trump’s son-in-law to build luxury complex in the center of Belgrade, paving the way for the redevelopment of the site former General Staff Building, locally known as Generalštab. This act incited wide protests by Serbian public and experts, decrying corruption.
The special law, approved by the ruling majority of populist Serbian Progressive Party with 130–40 votes, stripped away the protected cultural heritage status for the landmark complex situated across the street from the seat of Serbian government.
Under the arrangement, a US-based investment company affiliated with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald J. Trump, got a 99-year lease to develop the property into a hotel, apartment blocks, shops and offices.
The Serbian government asserted that the project — reported to be valued at around USD 500 million — will boost tourism, create jobs and strengthen ties with the United States.
Government critics consider the deal an attempt by Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić to curry favor with the Trump administration at the time when anti-corruption protests shake his increasingly autocratic rule.
On November 13, weekly Radar reported that leaked documents show that the agreement gives Jared Kushner’s firm Affinity Partners’ subsidiary Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC a 77.5 percent stake in a joint venture to build the complex, while Serbia receives 22.5 percent in return for a symbolic EUR 2,250.
The state must provide the land free for 99 years, demolish the protected site at its own expense, and deliver a cleared parcel or face potential multi-million-euro penalties if obligations aren’t met by May 2026. The plan includes three 135-meter towers, with only about 1 percent of space reserved for a museum.
The development is classified as a project of “special national importance,” with state guaranteeing exemption from court proceedings and from architectural competitions. The contract may also be transferred to an affiliated company in the United Arab Emirates without Serbia’s approval.
Opposition parties, heritage groups and civic activists demand preservation of the site as a war monument and a landmark of Yugoslav modernist architecture. On November 10, thousands gathered near the site to protest the law and the project.
Several leading European and international heritage organizations expressed their deep concern and firm opposition to the new special law.
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The complex known as Yugoslav Ministry of Defense Building or General Staff Building is located in the center of Belgrade, at a prime location directly across the building of the national government of Serbia. Built in 1965, it received heavy damage during the NATO bombing of 1999.
For a decade and a half, the complex was deserted and served as symbolic reminder of the bombing, fueling anti-Western sentiments. In 2006 it was designated as cultural heritage of Serbia.
The controversial project of turning it into a luxury private hotel begun in 2014, when the Serbian government hosted a working visit of associates of Donald Trump. A year later, the government announced that an investor from United Arab Emirates would build the project.
In 2016, then-Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić announced that the whole complex would be torn down to clear space for a new monument to medieval Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja. The monument was built nearby, a mere 700 meters further along the same street in 2020, and the General Staff complex remained standing.
In March 2024 then-Minister of Construction Goran Vesić signed a contract with Kushner's US company Affinity Global Development for the “revitalization” of the complex of the former federal ministry of defense. Kushner then shared a proposed image of the project on X.
The former minister Vesić is currently a suspect in the Novi Sad train station canopy collapse, a tragedy that triggered the biggest anti-corruption protest movement in recent Serbian history.
Since the law prohibits building hotels on the site of cultural monuments, the government initiated a process to change the status of the complex. The experts working at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia refused the government request, which only intensified government pressure. Then-Director Dubravka Đukanović, a renowned architect-conservationist and university professor, resigned on June 3, 2024 after she refused Minister of Finance Siniša Mali's demand to remove the protected status of the General Staff complex.
Three weeks later, ignoring the widespread protests by citizens and experts, the government illegally appointed Goran Vasić as acting director of the institute, even though he wasn’t qualified. The law requires that the position holder have passed a conservationist exam, which Vasić had not.
Acting Director Vasić then submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Culture for cessation of the status of cultural heritage for the General Staff complex. He didn’t conduct any consultation with the expert staff of the institution, nor did he follow the proper procedure of submitting the document via the ministry archives. An unknown person in the ministry accepted the document and then the ministry officially forwarded it to the government, which approved the proposal at its session of November 14, 2024.
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The employees of the institute protested the decision made in their name but without their consent. In response, State Security Agency (BIA) agents visited them in attempt to intimidate them into silence.
The experts didn’t succumb to pressure and published an open letter addressed to the Ministry of Culture and the government, denouncing the incident as “the only country in the civilized world” which undermines its own institution for the protection of cultural heritage and “destroys its own cultural monuments.”
In April 2025 the employees of the institute finally saw a copy of Vasić’s proposal, when it was presented to them by police investigators who visited the institution. Instead of expert study, as required by regulations, it appeared as a short essay. The employees submitted requests to the Ministry of Culture and the government to annul what had happened and restore the protected status of the General Staff complex, and to fire Vasić for gross violation of work ethics, including fraud.
While the ministry and the government remained silent, the police arrested Vasić on May 13, and the demolition process was halted. Jared Kushner’s company told the New York Times it had nothing to do with the criminal action and that “the fate of the project is less clear.”
The news of the arrest caught the Serbian public by surprise, Radar weekly reported. The Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized crime announced that they’ve gathered evidence that Vasić committed the felonies of forging official documents and abuse of official position, by issuing an illegal proposal for the cessation of the status of cultural monument for the complex. The law requires that such a document must be produced by an expert conservatory committee within the institute.
According to the prosecutors’ announcement, submitting the illegal proposal to the government “caused damage to the cultural heritage of Serbia.”
And while Vasić plead guilty during a hearing on May 14, President Vučić stepped out of his jurisdiction into the realm of the judiciary and publicly denied the suspect’s confession two days later, stating that “no forgery has taken place.”
In the subsequent period, the Vučić regime apparently used all levers of power to push the deal with Trump's son-in-law forward, resulting in the latest legislative arrangement. Whether the demolition and construction will take place very much depends on the resolution of the political deadlock between the government and protesting citizens who demand new elections.
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