Go-Change: Over 10,000 signatures for saving GS building collected in 24h

The Go-Change movement said that more than 10,000 signatures have been collected in less than 24 hours for the petition calling for the protection of the General Staff building in central Belgrade.

Following the government announcements that a hotel is to be built at the site of the General Staff building in central Belgrade, the Go-Change movement yesterday started a petition to save the building, said the movement in a press release.

The petition demands the honoring of the law under which only the original function of the General Staff building may be restored, which could then house the Historical Museum of Serbia that currently does not have an adequate space for its permanent exhibition.

“The construction of a hotel on the site of this building is against the law and constitutes the destruction of dignity,” said Go-Change.

The leader of the Serbian opposition Ecological Uprising environmental organization, Aleksandar “Cuta” Jovanovic, publicly presented a document that he said was a memorandum of understanding signed between two American companies and the Serbian Government – represented by outgoing Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Goran Vesic. According to the document, the Serbian Government has leased the site in central Belgrade, for a period of 99 years, free of charge, to two American companies, Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC and Kushner Realty, with the possibility of converting the right of use into right of ownership after 99 years.

Vesic has denied signing a memorandum, adding that “the public will be notified when that happens.”

The New York Times reported that an investment firm owned by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former US President Donald Trump, will get a 99-year lease, at no charge, and the right to build a luxury hotel and apartment complex and a museum on the site of the former headquarters of the Yugoslav Ministry of Defense in Belgrade, the so-called General Staff building.

In a post on X, Mr. Kushner shared early design images for the project in downtown Belgrade.

Mr. Kushner’s company, Affinity Partners, said in a statement for The New York Times that the Belgrade site would be “transformed into a world-class luxury hotel” but that it would also include a museum and memorial designed by Serbian architects, to pay tribute to the location’s importance in recent Serbian history.