Šodroš is a Hungarian word which means a type of embankment, but it can mean “calm water” too. It is also the name that the Novi Sad citizens gave to the last green oasis in their city.
This is the place where various rare plant and animal species live around the backwaters of the Danube. This is also a favourite place for rest and recreation, frequented by fishermen and nature lovers. It has become a symbol of the fight against, as the activists say, investment urbanism, which, they claim, has turned this cosy South European city into a crowded town laden with unregulated construction and abnormal traffic jams.
In this oasis, the city government plans to build a residential and business complex called Novi Sad Waterfront. This project is problematic for many reasons. First of all, it destroys nature and protected plant and animal species. Secondly, the embankment will be moved 500 metres forward into the Danube bed, in order for the developers to gain more building land.
Experts say that this significantly increases the risk of flooding, something Novi Sad has had a lot of problems with in the not-so-distant past. Both the Vode Vojvodine Public Water Management Company and the Jaroslav Černi Water Management Institute from Zemun gave a negative opinion of the Novi Sad Waterfront project proposal.
The management of Vode Vojvodine was replaced soon after and the Institute was bought by the Millennium Team Company, which is currently carrying out the preparatory works in the location, more precisely cutting down the forest in Šodroš. The Novi Sad Waterfront project, estimated to be worth a billion euros, has been given a green light since that is what the logic of transitional capitalism dictates, i.e. the enormous wealth that can be generated by real estate investors involved in the project who are also very close to the Novi Sad authorities.
The construction of a new Danube bridge in Šodroš is the first step in the implementation of this project. Although Novi Sad needs a new bridge, activists claim that it has no place being built there – not only because the environment has to be protected, but also because it would not be fully functional to build the bridge in the Šodroš area. Namely, the bridge is supposed to be part of the ring road that passes through the heart of the city, which is an absurdity on its own. Furthermore, the contract with the Chinese company that is commissioned to build the bridge is treated as strictly classified, while the obligatory public procurement process did not take place, both typical examples of corruption in high places.
The activists erected a camp called Šodroš Survivor more than four months ago to stop the construction of Novi Sad Waterfront, while the images of their fight with the police and the arrests that followed were seen by the entire Balkans.
Before these urban-guerrilla campaigns, the protesters had been trying to oppose not only the Novi Sad Waterfront project but also other problematic parts of the recently adopted urban spatial plan (called GUP for short) via official channels. However, the government turned a deaf ear to their numerous objections. The voting on the GUP was followed by a confrontation between private security, which then-mayor Miloš Vučević hired for the occasion, and the citizens protesting in front of the Novi Sad Assembly where the voting took place.
Activists claim that civil disobedience under dictatorship is their fundamental right, as well as that the urban-guerrilla-style campaigns they carry out are quite legitimate, as they are not harming anyone or permanently damaging anything, but rather are contributing to the fight against state violence.
(Al Jazeera Balkans, 27.10.2022)