President Milanović backs Zagreb protest and demands action over Gospić waste

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Marko Beljan)

A public protest highlighting concerns over illegally dumped waste in Gospić and the wider environmental impact on Lika will take place in Zagreb on Saturday, 5 September.

Organised by the civic initiative “Gospić je naš dom” (Gospić Is Our Home), the protest, titled “Hodaj za Liku, hodaj za Hrvatsku” (Walk for Lika, Walk for Croatia), is intended to draw national attention to the waste situation and calls for faster action by state institutions.

Participants are due to gather at 11am at Trg kralja Tomislava, outside Zagreb’s Main Railway Station, before walking towards the city centre. The main programme is scheduled to begin at noon at Ban Jelačić Square.

The protest comes amid continuing concerns over waste illegally deposited at the site of the former PPK Velebit industrial complex in Gospić.

Investigations and subsequent analyses have highlighted the scale and nature of the material at the site, with around 4,500 tonnes of loose waste containing hazardous properties and a further 650 tonnes stored in large bags included in the first stages of the Government-backed remediation process.

Analyses published this year have also prompted concern over contamination, including findings relating to PFAS compounds in groundwater downstream of the site.

The organisers, however, are calling for the contaminated locations to be dealt with urgently, clearer deadlines and accountability for those responsible.

The Croatian government said this week it is stepping up efforts to clean up the illegal waste site in Gospić, where thousands of tonnes of waste and buried ash have been identified.

The Government has launched a phased remediation process, with work focused on removing hazardous material, preventing further environmental contamination and protecting groundwater.

The protest has received support from several trade unions, including the SSSH, NHS and Matica hrvatskih sindikata, which said residents have the right to demand protection of their health, safety and environment.

President Zoran Milanović has also expressed support for the protest, saying that peaceful gatherings aimed at protecting the environment and public health should be supported.

– Preservation of nature and the human environment, and thus of human health, is one of the highest values ​​of the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia.

Every public gathering and peaceful protest aimed at preserving nature, the human environment and human health should be supported, especially in a situation where state institutions have failed to do so, as in the case of the illegal disposal of hazardous waste in Gospić.

It is only thanks to individuals and citizens’ associations that the problem has been raised for more than two years that serious discussion has begun. Croatian citizens, and especially the people of Gospić and Lika, therefore have the right to seek and receive answers that they have not received to this day.

I see the protest in Zagreb as a call from the Croatian people to the responsible institutions to start solving the problem of hazardous waste in Gospić and other places more quickly and efficiently, but also as a call to determine the responsibility of all those who enabled the import and illegal disposal of hazardous waste.

A protest that demands the protection of nature, the human environment and human health, as well as responsibility for violating the law, has my support because it actually demands the preservation of the values ​​of the Croatian constitutional order, the protection of which is also my duty, he wrote on Facebook.