Members of the Serbian government were startled when they first saw a giant yellow styrofoam duck in front of parliament on April 2nd.

That two-metre replica duck was the work of a “flash mob” action organized by activists from “Let’s not drown Belgrade” – the most persistent opponents of the Belgrade Waterfront project, which the mayor of Belgrade calls “the biggest project in Europe”.

River police at the Belgrade Boat Carnival on August 29 confiscated a banner with the name of the initiative on it / photo by Facebook

This Sunday protesters expect to draw a big crowd in opposition to the scheme, as the Prime Minister lays the foundation stone.

Flood of criticism for waterfront contract Talks about the Belgrade Waterfront project started in 2014. Plans include the construction of the residential and office buildings, the largest shopping mall in the Balkans, a hotel, an opera house and a skyscraper. Aleksandar Vucic, the Prime Minister, says the project is extremely important for the development of the country. The government signed the contract for the project with Eagle Hills, a company in the United Arab Emirates, on April 26. However, the project has caused controversy. The government has been accused of failing to respect legal procedures, censorship of the project’s opponents and the lack of transparency. After five months, the government published the contract on September 20. Documents published on the government website show that the parties in the project are the government’s “Belgrade waterfront” company and “Belgrade waterfront equity investments” as its strategic partner. Al Mabar International Investments, from the UAE, is the guarantor. The deadline for implementation is 30 years. After 20 years the first evaluation of progress will take place. The project will be evaluated positively if 50 per cent of the project is complete by then. Apart from government officials, few experts have voiced positive views about the project or the contract. Nemanja Nenadic, from Transparency Serbia, told BIRN that procedures “were completely hidden from the public eye”. Jelena Jerinic, a legal expert, told BIRN that the contract was unconstitutional because the government had in practice committed itself not to change the law for 30 year, which gives the investor immunity to Serbian law.

Robert Kozma, one of the protesters, recalled that the duck first appeared in front of parliament when MPs were about to adopt a “lex specialis”, a law enabling the expropriation of private and urban land to start the Waterfront.

“That was the moment when ‘the duck’ came to say that everything about the Waterfront was a big fraud,” he said.

After the duck attracted attention, a protest was organized on April 26, called “Let’s show them the duck,” timed to take place when the project contract was to be signed.

“A lot of people liked the duck as a symbol and as ‘duck’ has a multi-layered meaning, we made it a trademark of the initiative,” Radomir Lazovic, another protester, said.

He said he was surprised at how quickly the duck became a thorn in the eye of the police.

“Sometimes it is ridiculous how they are bothered by the duck. It looks like they are afraid they will get a direct order to arrest it,” Lazovic said.

“Let’s not drown Belgrade” was set up in 2014 to oppose the Belgrade Waterfront’s objectives, consequences and the way the process of planning and the legalizing the project was carried out.

It has drawn in a number of associations, independent organizations, experts, lawyers, academics, journalists, architects and urban planners.

Their idea is to stress the importance of popular participation in the development of the city, both in terms of the Belgrade Waterfront and the wider development of the city as a whole.

“Let’s not drown Belgrade” protesters in front of Geozavod building / photo by Facebook

A protest against apathy

While the repressive actions of the authorities have given the initiative visibility in the media, this is only on the internet. Mainstream media ignore it.

Almost 24,000 people “like” the organization on Facebook but the protests usually draw around 500 people.

Robert Kozma thinks that it is not a bad number, considering the media blockade and the apathy prevailing among most people.

“People think they can’t change anything. Young people are apathetic and disoriented, but I think that we are making changes,” he said.

Sunday’s protest across from the Geozavod building is timed to take place when Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and Muhamed al Abar, director of Eagle Hills, are due to lay the foundation stone.

They expect around 2,000 people or more to come this time.

“Organizations from other cities are going to come to support us. People from Novi Sad are arranging a ‘duck-bus’ for people to join us on Sunday,” Lazovic noted.

“And we all know how they are scared of the duck.”

Censorship and obstruction

“Let’s not drown Belgrade” has encountered major problems with the authorities because of their protests against the Waterfront.

The initiative has set up its own newspaper, in which they collected all the experts’ various objections “in one place”.

But when they tried to share the information with people on the street, it turned out to be illegal.

Marko Macura, from the initiative, said that when they handed outtheir paper in front of city hall on March 27, “it was quite irritating for the local chiefs”.

“The police arrested three of our activists, a journalist who took statements from us and also the people who passed by to greet us,” he said.

“They charged us with ‘sharing a newspaper’ and told us that citizens have no right to express their opinion in that way,” he added.

The next incident happened on April 26when they organized a protest against the signing of the contract.

“The authorities did not want the elite to see the protest and someone ordered two trams to stop exactly in front the protesters. Mayor Sinisa Mali said the protesters stopped the trams but we have proven that is untrue,” said Kozma.

“We got a response from the City Public Transport that the police ordered them to stop the trams,” Kozma continued.

Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance in Serbia, said there are two theories about what happened.

“One is that a group of anonymous citizens who occasionally dress in police uniform were cruising the city, stopping traffic and blocking streets…. The other is that the police acted on the orders of some influential people outside police structures,” Sabic said.

“Both are equally bad and undesirable,” he wrote in a blog on B92 site.

“The duck” has also caused problems with the police on its natural habitat – the water.

River police at the Belgrade Boat Carnival on August 29confiscated a banner with the name of the initiative on it, and temporarily banned their place on the ships’ parade for which they had registered.

“The river police told us that we are not allowed to use the banner ‘Let’s not drown Belgrade’ because it was a ‘political’ message,” Lazovic said.

“When we asked why we were banned from the parade, they responded: ‘You know why,’” Lazovic concluded.

The protesters say such actions by the authorities reveal the real nature of their relationship with the public.

“The authorities in this country don’t like their own citizens. Here, national and public interest has nothing to do with the needs and wishes of citizens. Dodgy business and the private interests of economic and political elites are all that matters,” Macura said.

“But, no matter how hard they try, they cannot prohibit people from thinking,” he concluded.

The protesters believe they can build a new kind of solidarity and civic awareness from the current movement.

“People need to organize themselves. Even if we lose this battle, the war is not over. The most important thing is that people realize they can make a change,” Lazovic said.

“Just for start – let’s show them ‘the duck’ on Sunday,” he concluded.

See also: Belgrade Police Charge Journalists Filming Protest Report