Thanks, but no - thanks.
This is roughly what the message from the United States of America sounds like regarding the planned project for a luxury complex on the site of the demolished General Staff in downtown Belgrade.
"Since significant projects should unite, not divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the city of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and are withdrawing at this time," said a spokesperson for the investment firm. Affinity Partners owned by Jared Kushner for The Wall Street Journal (wall street journal).
Back in May 2024, Reuters agency announced that a contract had allegedly been signed between the state of Serbia and Kouchner's company for a 99-year lease of the space where the General Staff building, which was hit during the NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999.
"Everything will be in accordance with Serbian laws, in cooperation with the government and relevant institutions responsible for urban planning and the protection of cultural heritage," quoted by Reuters then the statement from Kushner's firm.
The value of the investment, nor the deadline for its completion, has not been specified.
The latest decision by Trump's son-in-law (Kushner is married to the US president's daughter) was announced on the same day that the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Nikola Selaković, currently the Minister of Culture, for "illegality in removing the status of cultural property from the General Staff building."
The day after the announcement of Kouchner's company's decision, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was angry, and announced criminal charges "against all who participated in that crackdown (against the construction of hotels and other facilities on the site of the General Staff)."
"We lost an investment worth at least 750 million euros," He said journalists.
He believes that Kouchner's decision was contributed to, as he put it, by "the persecution and campaign against people who were doing their job responsibly and seriously."
He announced criminal charges against all who participated in this, including "those from the police, the prosecutor's office, and all who contributed to the destruction and further economic undermining of Serbia."
It is necessary, he says, to denigrate and destroy everything, to destroy Serbia and leave it without investors.
BBC Serbian sent questions to Jared Kushner's company about the General Staff project, but no response was received by the time the text was published.
What does the contract say and what are the consequences?
In March 2024, Kouchner announced that his company Affinity Partners' broader investment in the Balkans would include projects in Albania and in Belgrade on the site of the former military command building, where hotels, apartments, shops, and office space would be built.
Kushner, a former top aide to Trump, founded the investment firm after leaving the White House in 2021.
The details of the 99-year lease agreement between the state of Serbia and Kouchner's company have not been made public, and BBC Serbian has not had access to them.
According to the information available so far, only one contract has been signed on a joint investment between a strategic partner from the USA and Serbia, he wrote. portal Forbs
Two more contracts were in the draft stage that would more closely regulate the functioning of the planned joint venture.
Also, a draft of a 99-year land lease agreement, as well as a model agreement on the transfer of shares in a joint company, the same source stated.
In the event of termination of the contract, Serbia pays the strategic partner the termination costs and takes over its share in the joint company.
"They consist of the costs he incurred during the transaction and an additional million euros," Forbes writes
Vučić said that the story surrounding the General Staff is only now actually becoming an affair.
"Unfortunately, for the state and the people, we are big losers."
"The total property damage caused to us by the blockaders and the prosecution is no less than 1,5 billion euros in various ways," Vucic said, alluding to anti-government protests in Serbia launched after the collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, when 16 people were killed and another woman was seriously injured.
Watch the video about the student protest to 'save the General Staff'
What preceded Kouchner's withdrawal?
The authorities in Serbia have done everything they can to prepare the ground for Kouchner's company to implement its plan to build a luxury complex in the center of Belgrade.
The demolition of the General Staff building was opposed by some experts, the political opposition, as well as students who organized protests after the canopy collapsed in Novi Sad.
However, despite the opposition of employees at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, the authorities removed the status of a cultural asset from the General Staff building.
And then the government passed a special law (lex specialis) to enable the demolition of monumental military buildings damaged in the 1999 bombing.
"Lex specialis was used as a legal instrument with a political goal to circumvent the regular procedure for the interests of a profit group," Stevan Lilić, a professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, previously told BBC Serbian.
During a debate in the Serbian Parliament, representatives of the ruling coalition argued that the General Staff building could not be renovated and that, even if it could, it would cost a lot.
However, others, including architect Bojan Kovačević, argue differently.
"The building is only five percent damaged and it cannot be, but must be, restored," Kovacevic said in an interview for the BBC in Serbian.
- Lex Specialis on the General Staff: 'It's not the Colosseum'
- From the demolished General Staff to a possible Trump hotel, with a series of controversies
- Student protest 'For the General Staff' in Belgrade
In parallel with the preparation of the terrain for the start of the demolition of the General Staff building, legal proceedings were (and are) ongoing regarding this facility.
The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has raised indictment against Minister Nikola Selaković and three other people, accusing them of having influenced the General Staff building to be stripped of its status as a cultural asset.
Selaković said he was "looking forward to the trial" to expose the rogue prosecution and prove that it was working against the state.
It's Vucic said that the indictment against Selaković is "shameful and pathetic" and that he claims that "he (Selaković) did not take a single dinar".
"I want to answer, it's my fault. I wanted such a big investment to come to our country."
"And in that case, I can't wait for the indictment to be filed against me, against Aleksandar Vučić as the President of the Republic," he said.
He added that he would immediately pardon anyone else against whom an indictment might be filed.
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- General Staff Case: What is at issue?
- 'Renovating the General Staff is a matter of self-respect,' architect Kovačević tells the BBC
- The General Staff Building in Belgrade is a masterpiece: Evropa nostra
- Indictment proposal for the General Staff case: Who is Nikola Selaković?
- General Staff: Forgery for the prosecution, not for Vučić
- New or sealed fates of buildings destroyed in NATO bombing
Bonus video:
