'An ugly insult to the past': Serbians fight US plan to build Trump Tower

Proposal to erect a gleaming hotel complex on the ruins of Belgrade's defence ministry adds to fury over corruption, writes Francisco Garcia

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The shell of the former Yugoslav ministry of defence in central Belgrade carries a different resonance depending on who you talk to.

In 1999, Nato planes bombed the complex as part of the US-led campaign to halt the Kosovo war.

For many Serbs, there is little room for ambiguity. The hollowed-out buildings a tangle of gaping holes and half-obliterated concrete - stand as a symbol of western aggression and hypocrisy, a monument to the troubled, still contested recent past.

For 22-year-old Nikolina Djordjevic, a student of conservation and restoration at the University of Belgrade, the issue has nothing to do with the building's past - and everything to do with its possible future.

Late last year, a flurry of jolly press releases announced a deal with a company called Affinity Global whose founder happens to be Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Affinity Global would redevelop the old ministry of defence building into a £370m luxury hotel and apartment complex, with the letters “Trump” emblazoned across the top.

The 99-year lease would, according to the most reliable independent sources, come at no upfront cost. A glossy promotional website has since been launched, showing a succession of CGI apartment towers rocketing into the Belgrade skyline. The Trump hotel squats in the foreground, with a fleet of luxury cars parked outside, the American flag flying proudly above the entrance.

For Djordjevic, the idea that such a place, even in its current state, could be demolished to make way for Europe's first Trump International Hotel was almost impossible to comprehend. It was not simply crass, but an ugly insult to the past.

"That it can be given away as a present... it is almost like a Greek tragedy," she said, standing yards from the buildings on a sweltering morning in late June.