Serbia starts 'German Bridge' demolition despite outcry

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Serbia starts 'German Bridge' demolition despite outcry – DW – 11/02/2024
dw.com

A World War II-era bridge that the Nazis built has been formally closed in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, ahead of its demolition. The closure came despite opponents' saying it would further limit transport options.

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But why though?

Blind serbian nationalism would be my guess but there seems to be more. Why now and why dismantle a working bridge without replacement?

Built by nazi Germany during wartime 80 years ago? Can't imagine it's in very good shape now.

That's what I thought too, but wouldn't it be mentioned somewhere in the article? Like a line saying:

"The city government plans to demolish the bridge due to risk of collapse."

Then maybe these journalists aren't doing their jobs properly. They should mention the reason behind it, be it nationalism or risk of collapse. They haven't mentioned either, which means they purposefully want to leave the reason up for debate. Bad journalism

There's a ton of history on Wikipedia. Most of it is the council coming up with new reasons to demolish it or plans to change it, with no convincing motive.

The most notable things for me were:

  • An allegation that they want the bridge demolished to remove the trams that mar the modernity of the waterfront regeneration project nearby.
  • A mention of Chinese lenders bankrolling the demolition and construction a Chinese construction firm being awarded the contract for constructing a new bridge.
  • A mention of a Russian construction and design group submitting plans for transforming and relocating the existing bridge.