Vučemilović Lashes Out at Benčić
MP accuses Možemo leader of selective action and cheap politicking, recalling the case of Zagreb waste in Donji Miholjac while Benčić headed the parliamentary Environment Committee.
MP accuses Možemo leader of selective action and cheap politicking, recalling the case of Zagreb waste in Donji Miholjac while Benčić headed the parliamentary Environment Committee.
MP Vesna Vučemilović sharply criticized Možemo party leader Sandra Benčić on social media on Monday, August 10, 2026. The occasion was Benčić's engagement in Gospić, where, according to Vučemilović, she is involved in "cheap politicking" while simultaneously ignoring her own failures from the time she headed the parliamentary Committee on Environment and Nature.
"While Sandra Benčić parades through Gospić and engages in cheap politicking, she forgets a few harsh facts," Vučemilović wrote in a Facebook post, as reported by Narod.hr.
Vučemilović recalled a case dating from Benčić's tenure as committee chair. "Biowaste mixed with municipal waste from Zagreb was being transported to the vicinity of Donji Miholjac until inspections conducted oversight and issued a ban. The stench of Zagreb's garbage that was poisoning the residents of Donji Miholjac, about which I spoke multiple times in Parliament, didn't bother her," the MP claimed.
With this statement, she implies that Benčić, as the then-head of the parliamentary body responsible for the environment, was passive in the face of a problem that directly affected the citizens of Slavonia.
In her post, Vučemilović did not mince words. She called the entire Možemo party a "sect" and accused them of hypocrisy. "The selective memory and action of the Možemo sect is their modus operandi. Selling PR fog is all they know. Of course, along with banning everything patriotic," she said.
The polemic unfolds against the backdrop of a major environmental scandal in Gospić. At the PPK Velebit/Bilajska site, an illegal landfill was discovered with an estimated 35,000 to 45,000 tons of hazardous waste, including plastics, medical infectious waste, and heavy metals. The waste is buried in karst terrain, posing a serious threat to groundwater, and recent analyses confirmed ecotoxicity and high concentrations of copper, lead, and antimony.
Although the discovery has been public for over a year and a half, remediation has not yet begun. Costs are estimated to reach up to €50 million. Tenders for the first phase, which would cover about 3,500 tons of waste, failed due to a lack of bids. Citizens of Lika, gathered in the "Walk for Lika" initiative, are protesting for transparency and urgent remediation, while USKOK is conducting an investigation.
