Mass protest in Zagreb: citizens accuse tens of thousands of tons of illegal waste near Gospić

With the chant “Croatia, Croatia!” precisely at noon, thousands of people filled Ban Josip Jelačić Square in Zagreb for the protest titled “Go for Lika, go for Croatia.” The protest was organized by the civic initiative Gospić is Our Home because, as the organizers accuse, tens of thousands of tons of illegally dumped waste have been deposited in the surroundings of the town of Gospić in the Lika region.

The organizers made specific demands to the Government, the first of which reads: that the Government present the entire remediation program with binding deadlines within 20 days.

Vladimir Šulentic from the initiative addressed those present and told them: "We have only her, let's show how much we love her."

Resident of Gospić Željka Šikić, in a fiery speech, thanked the citizens for their support and said that her faith in people is being restored. She warned about the influence of what she called the "eco-mafia" and said: "Thank you from the heart. Thank you for restoring my faith in people, faith in us, thank you for every message, for every letter. Thank you for every public appearance because today one must have courage for that. Especially thank you for not letting politics into your shop. (…) To us, who live our lives with dignity, you have handed us over to the hands of the eco-mafia."

The president of the "Homeland Movement", Ivan Paneva, assessed that the national waste management strategy is insufficiently clear and condemned illegal dumping: "I condemn that phenomenon of illegal dumping with disgust, as well as the incomprehensibly insufficiently clear strategy for waste management, where simply everyone is equally to blame and where I would not divide the work into left and right."

Response from the authorities

Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved said that the Government is aware of the situation in Gospić and that it is acting legally, systemically, responsibly and transparently in the remediation of the contested landfill: "The Government is indeed aware of the situation in Gospić, but we are also aware of the situation and the dangers of other such illegal landfills."

Medved pointed out that the Government has taken a number of concrete actions, which Prime Minister Andrej Plenković informed the public about two days ago, and emphasized the steps and the timeline for the remediation of the landfill in Gospić. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition stated that Croatia does not allow unlimited import of all types of waste and that the claim that hazardous waste can be freely imported is not correct.

Photo: Printscreen