Gospić Mayor Darko Milinović has issued an open letter demanding urgent hazardous waste remediation, declaring ecocide a terrorist act, and calling on Prime Minister Plenković to personally lead the remediation committee.
Gospić Mayor Darko Milinović published an open letter on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, titled "Croatia, Let Gospić Unite Us," calling for an urgent response from state institutions to the hazardous waste problem in the city. Milinović described the ecocide in Gospić as a terrorist act and called on the entire country to embrace a new form of patriotism.
"There is no doubt that Gospić has witnessed a TERRORIST act of ecocide that could endanger the health of the population of Gospić, Lika-Senj County, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and indeed all of Croatia," Milinović stated in the letter. The mayor appealed to the State Attorney's Office (DORH) and judicial bodies to consider declaring this ecocide a terrorist act and to prosecute all those responsible in the chain. According to expert findings previously published by USKOK, large quantities of waste of various compositions, including hazardous and ecotoxic waste, were found at the industrial complex in Gospić. The expert analysis also confirmed soil contamination and a potential impact on groundwater, conducted as part of the investigation against the Šincek couple and other suspects for illegal waste handling.
Milinović reminded that a year and a half ago he had already warned of the need for urgent waste remediation in Gospić and called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to head a committee tasked with addressing the issue. "Accept this idea—urgent remediation—and let Andrej Plenković lead the committee responsible for its implementation," he urged in the open letter. He also noted that he had previously requested that the public procurement process be abandoned if it would delay remediation. He criticized the minister's statement that the problem would not be resolved during her term, warning: "September is coming, and so are the rains. Who will be responsible for new contamination and potential impacts on human health?"
The mayor drew particular attention to the lithium plant in Gospić. "I once again ask the State Attorney to receive me and hear me out, so I can be sure they have the necessary documentation that could shed light on the document by which the Ministry claimed that no environmental impact assessment was required for the aforementioned plant," Milinović stated. He did not name the specific ministry. This concerns tens of thousands of tons of illegally dumped waste that, without remediation, could, according to expert findings, represent a continuous source of pollution.
Milinović called on all stakeholders to set aside narrow party interests. "Let this time the common interest be Gospić, and thereby all of Croatia, in the fight to protect human health and prevent further pollution that, according to the expert analysis published by DORH, can still be stopped through urgent remediation," he emphasized. He urged the ruling coalition to accept what he had said a year and a half ago. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković convened an urgent online meeting of the leaders of the ruling coalition parties for the same day at 11 a.m., after Most, SDP, and Drito demanded an urgent session of Parliament. Pressure also came from within the coalition—Domovinski pokret president Ivan Penava demanded an immediate response from the Prime Minister and the entire government, while President Zoran Milanović also called for urgent remediation of the landfill.
"I CALL ON ALL OF CROATIA TO STAND BESIDE GOSPIĆ AND IN THAT WAY DEMONSTRATE A NEW KIND OF PATRIOTISM THAT IS NEEDED TODAY JUST AS IT WAS IN '91," Milinović concluded.
