Hajdaš Dončić: 'It's Either Us or the Mafia'
SDP leader in Gospić announces impeachment of PM Plenković over hazardous waste scandal, calls out IDS and urges Milanović to convene an emergency session of Parliament.
SDP leader in Gospić announces impeachment of PM Plenković over hazardous waste scandal, calls out IDS and urges Milanović to convene an emergency session of Parliament.
An emergency session of the Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Protection was held in Gospić on August 17, 2026, where the opposition demanded political accountability over the illegal hazardous waste dump in Bilajska. SDP leader Siniša Hajdaš Dončić announced they are moving to impeach Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and expects President Zoran Milanović to call an urgent session of Parliament. Ministers arriving at the session were met with boos, as was Hajdaš Dončić while he spoke, and the Chief State Attorney also arrived in Gospić.
According to findings so far, 37,000 tons of hazardous waste were illegally buried in Bilajska over a 50-year period. At the center of this story are the Šincek couple, who implicated former Chief State Inspector Andrija Mikulić, claiming he accepted a bribe. So-called forever chemicals have been detected in groundwater downstream from Gospić.
Chief State Attorney Ivan Turudić stated that the investigation is still ongoing. "As soon as the investigation is complete, we will make a prosecutorial decision. That could be by the end of September," Turudić said. When asked about the possibility of expanding the investigation, he replied that this option always exists.
He also commented on Marija Selak Raspudić's proposal to make ecocide a criminal offense. "It's not directly my concern, but I have nothing against stricter penalties-it's become a trend: whenever a problem arises, we tighten penalties. I'm not sure that would always solve the problem," Turudić stated.
Before the committee meeting, the opposition held a meeting, and Dajana Šošić spoke with the SDP president. After the meeting, Hajdaš Dončić said the first conclusion is urgent remediation, with the state taking on all funding and co-funding obligations, and the second is that full responsibility lies with Plenković. "This is not an incident; this is a systemic failure. Someone allowed the mafia to gather and realize that Croatia lacks proper environmental regulations, and that was an invitation for an ecological Eldorado, in a negative sense," he said.
He added that this is Plenković's political responsibility and that the left-liberal centrist opposition has agreed to initiate impeachment. "It's either us or the mafia. No matter which spectrum we're talking about. I expect this impeachment to be joined by-although we're not ideologically close, but I have no problem-Most and other political parties, because we simply need to dismantle HDZ as a way of governing Croatia," he stated.
Hajdaš Dončić announced they will collect signatures for impeachment until September 15. "Without SDP and Možemo, no one can gather the signatures. We will collect them," he said, adding that 76 signatures are needed. He emphasized that only President Milanović can convene an emergency session of Parliament and that he expects him to do so.
He also called out IDS, which did not attend the opposition meeting despite being announced. "That's a good question for IDS. But I think the time has come for people in Istria and Croatia to ask what IDS is: a left-centrist opposition or perhaps cozying up with someone else? But that's a question for IDS," he said.
When asked if he had spoken with Milanović about convening the session, he replied: "We talk often, but the decision is his, and we know his constitutional powers. One of those powers is to convene a session of Parliament."
On the same day, at its 193rd session, the Government of the Republic of Croatia, pursuant to Article 56 of the Defense Act, adopted a Decision on the crossing of the border by members of the Armed Forces for the purpose of providing humanitarian assistance during firefighting operations in the area of the municipality of Bosansko Grahovo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For this task, the use of two Canadair CL-415 aircraft of the Croatian Air Force was approved, along with two crews consisting of members of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia.
