Croatians rally over toxic waste in Gospić

Tens of thousands of Croatians rallied in Zagreb on Saturday demanding the removal of hazardous waste from the town of Gospić, where investigators say tens of thousands of tonnes were illegally dumped at an abandoned industrial site. According to the Associated Press report carried by The Independent, police and Europol arrested 13 suspects earlier this year over an alleged scheme to import and bury waste for profit, with Europol putting the proceeds at at least several million euros. Protesters called for a public cleanup plan with deadlines and for a ban on waste imports, saying months have passed without any material being removed.

The case sits at an awkward intersection of cross-border commerce and local liability. Europol said much of the waste in Gospić was imported from other European countries, including Italy, Slovenia and Germany, turning what looks like a municipal environmental crisis into a supply-chain problem that spans the EU’s internal market. The alleged business model is simple: transport costs and disposal fees are high when rules are enforced, and low when waste can be reclassified, buried, or left in place long enough for responsibility to blur between contractors, landowners and agencies. Once the waste is underground, the next invoice tends to be for “assessment”, “monitoring” and “temporary measures” — and the final bill, if cleanup happens, lands on taxpayers rather than on the companies that priced the original job.

An expert report cited in the coverage found elevated metal concentrations in soil and detected PFAS compounds in groundwater, the kind of contamination that is difficult to remediate quickly even with money and political will. Officials have said multiple tests were negative and that investigation and cleanup efforts are ongoing, while also planning to temporarily cover the site to keep rainwater out and selecting a company to remove some waste as a longer-term plan is drafted. In karst terrain with loose soil and rivers, local contamination can migrate, which is why protesters framed the issue as a national health concern rather than a technical dispute about one industrial plot.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković accused political opponents of fueling panic for political gain, a familiar move when an administrative failure becomes visible enough to threaten incumbents. For residents, the timeline runs the other way: an activist group said it had reported suspected illegal activity since 2023, and a protester told the outlet that authorities were treating the situation like an accident rather than a planned crime.

In Gospić, the waste remains where it was allegedly buried, and the protest’s central demand is still a calendar: dates, contractors and a removal plan that can be checked against the ground.