Savamala: The Belgrade Waterfront Project and Citizens' Protests
Savamala: The Belgrade Waterfront Project and Citizens' Protests

Summary/Abstract: In 2014 the Serbian government presented a 3 billion Euro investment proposal from a United Arab Emirates’ company to transform a large portion of the Serbian capital. The WaterfrontProject would change Belgrade’s urban development considerably. An area close to the Sava River and the historic city center is to become a construction site for dozens of luxuriouscommercial and residential buildings, skyscrapers and shopping malls. From the start, the projectwas marked by a lack of transparency and the complete exclusion of the public, citizens and professionals. This was the primary reason why the Ne da(vi)mo Beograd / Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own initiativewas formed. The goal was to resist the project through institutional means, public talks, research,the dissemination of information, media engagement, newspaper publishing, as well as campaigns of civil disobedience. The Belgrade Waterfront case may have seemed like an extreme case of urban speculation at the beginning. However, when in 2016 masked thugs demolished the hitherto existing buildings at Savamala during the parliamentary election night, the publicreacted. Tens of thousands of citizens protested against the blatant violations of rights and the annihilation of the rule of law. The cover up of the incident revealed the alliances between state officials, government-controlledmedia, police and masked thugs as well as the overall decay of institutions in Serbia. Hardly anylight has been shed on the incidents in Savamala.

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