The Yugoslav Army headquarters in Belgrade after being hit by NATO bombing in April 1999. Photo: EPA/STR.
Serbian MPs on Friday adopted a so-called lex specialis, a special law on redeveloping the former Yugoslav Army General Headquarters in Belgrade, a landmark socialist-era building that was partly destroyed by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Out of 171 MPs present at the session, 130 voted in favour of the law, 40 were against, and one MP did not vote.
The law aims to declare the redevelopment – which is already linked to the investment firm of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law – a “project of importance for the Republic of Serbia”.
The building was severely damaged in two NATO air attacks, between April 29 and 30, 1999, and again between May 7 and 8 the same year. Parts of the premises were demolished between 2014 and 2017 for safety reasons.
“Competent authorities are obliged in the procedures carried out for the purpose of realising the project to act as a priority and according to urgent procedure,” the draft law says.
The landmark building, designed by architect Nikola Dobrovic for the Yugoslav Socialist authorities and built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was listed as a protected cultural monument by the state, described as “a significant work of Serbian and Yugoslav post-WWII architecture”.
The redevelopment project and the lex specialis were heavily criticised by the Serbian opposition and architectural experts.
On Tuesday, opposition MPs queried the need to pass a special law to enable the project to be realised.
“Suddenly, a hotel and a residential building are now of national interest,” MP Radomir Lazovic said. “So much so that a special law is passed … it is not enough that we have our own laws, but now we will pass a special law for two buildings – so you can give them to foreigners and buy them to keep quiet about the crimes you are carrying out here.”
The new law does not mention that the project has been agreed with Jared Kushner’s investment company Affinity Partners. According to the New York Times, the Kushner project in Belgrade will involve a luxury hotel and 1,500 residential units and a museum.
The project had been ongoing for some time but was halted in May by a criminal investigation led by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, over suspicions that the documentation – stripping the Yugoslav Army General Headquarters complex of protection as a cultural asset – had been forged.
The special laws allow the government to bypass normal procedures, including those about public procurements or construction safety.
Such special laws first came to public attention in Serbia in 2015, when the ruling Progressive Party, SNS, used one to advance a multi-billion-euro deal to develop riverfront land in Belgrade with a United Arab Emirates property developer.
In 2020, the Serbian parliament adopted an overarching lex specialis for all future big infrastructure projects, effectively suspending public procurement rules for them forever.
