The statement signed by 71 faculties and professional organizations from the country and abroad, led by SANU, calls for the abolition of lex specialists for the General Staff. Students call for protest on Tuesday "We are a living wall"
The decision of the Assembly of Serbia to pass the lex specialis with which it will overturn General Staff, their own cultural heritage, in order for individuals to make a profit, are condemned daily by the most respected domestic and foreign professional and political organizations and the media.
On November 10, the signatories of the Declaration on the fate of the Belgrade Fair and the General Staff again appealed to the decision-makers and the public to remind them that "the complex of the Belgrade Fair and the ensemble of the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense are cultural and historical heritage of common interest protected by the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia", as well as that "the preservation of cultural heritage and the development of the built environment is the collective responsibility of all citizens of Belgrade and Serbia, especially the public institutions of the city of Belgrade and the Republic of Serbia and decision-makers."
This announcement has 71 signatures, led by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Twenty of them are from abroad: faculties, professional organizations, associations, including Evropa Nostra, ICOMOS, ACE and DOCOMOMO.
All of them demand from the authorities in Serbia that the lex specialis be abolished and that the ensemble of the General Staff be restored and rehabilitated in accordance with the already established measures for the protection of cultural property, which prescribe the restoration to its original state, as well as the preservation of its administrative and administrative purpose and the higher level of categorization of that architectural work into the status of a cultural property of exceptional importance for the Republic of Serbia.
Students of the Faculty of Applied Arts, Faculty of Architecture and Philosophy in Belgrade and the General Staff Ensemble initiative announced a rally on social media on Tuesday, at 11 a.m. in front of the General Staff, with the message "We are a living wall".
They say that this is only a warning action, and that there will be more. They have been fighting for the preservation of the General Staff for a long time only to abandon it now, they say, and that this complex can only be defended on the street, given that it cannot be done in the Assembly.
On the 8th of November, the Italian daily "Corriere della Sera" is also under the title "Trump Tower in Belgrade - business and politics on the ruins of the symbol of Serbia" published an extensive text in which he emphasizes that "a Trump hotel worth half a billion dollars is being built in Belgrade, on the ruins of the former General Staff, which the populist Vučić says will help relations with the USA, and the opposition claims that the country's history is being sold and replaced with a casino and jacuzzis".
"Corriere della Sera" assesses that it is "undoubtedly the greatest success of Trump's construction diplomacy, the largest Trump hotel in Europe."
"The only thing missing is a video in the style of Gaza, which sooner or later someone will already upload, in which Donald Trump will be shown enjoying himself on the banks of the Sava in company, instead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it was in the video about Gaza, with his new business partner, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, while Balkan Dubai, the Trump Hotel that will be built in Belgrade, looms in sight," writes this media.
It is recalled that the American president has been aiming for this since 2013, and that his intention was not hindered by the Serbian judiciary's investigations into abuses of power regarding this building "which is a masterpiece of modernism".
"Corriere della Sera" also writes about the lex specialis: "By resorting to a special law, Vučić managed to get the parliament to approve that project."
He points out that "so far no one wanted to touch that palace in Kneza Miloša Street, an example of American arrogance, and the ruins stood there as a permanent warning for Serbia, which never accepted the loss of Kosovo, nor forgot the (NATO) bombing."
"There are things that go beyond conflict of interest. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his." Affinity Global Development the company will build a hotel, and the entire venture was led by Brad Pascal, the strategist of Trump's election campaigns, who was also Vučić's adviser for the election campaign in 2022," writes "Korijere".
He also states that "Donald junior, when he visited Belgrade, expressed political support for the Serbian government, which the opposition accuses of corruption and against which huge protests continue in the streets."
The Milan daily reminds us that the second son of Trump, Eric, once said that "we want to expand our presence in Europe" and made it known that "the construction entrepreneur from the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed Alabar, who has been building in Belgrade for years, will be involved in that work in Serbia."
However, the members of the Serbian Assembly, 130 of them who voted for the lex specialis to judge the General Staff, did not want to know any of this.
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