Croatia: Environmental committee session postponed after citizens walk out over question ban

A session of the Croatian Parliament's Committee on Environmental Protection in Gospić devolved into controversy when citizens walked out after being denied the opportunity to ask questions. Dušica Radojčić, chairwoman of the committee and a member of parliament for Možemo, declared the meeting pointless after the citizens' departure.

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Their departure made the session lose its meaning, and I postponed it.

Radojčić had convened the committee in Gospić specifically to allow local residents to question officials about waste and pollution issues plaguing the Lika region. She proposed that citizens speak first, an exception to the usual procedure. However, the majority bloc, aligned with the HDZ party, rejected this, insisting that citizens should not be allowed to ask questions at the start of the session.

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What is the point of them being at that session if they are only invited to listen and cannot get answers to their questions?

"What is the point of them being at that session if they are only invited to listen and cannot get answers to their questions?" Radojčić questioned. She interpreted the HDZ's stance as a fear of addressing the citizens' concerns, particularly regarding the timeline for removing waste and the impact of pollution. She noted that even the minister's statements indicated that remediation for surface waste would only begin in a year, with no clear plan for buried waste.

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This tells me that HDZ is actually afraid of their questions because they have no answers as to when that waste will finally be removed, what the impact of that pollution is…

Radojčić dismissed the interpretation offered by Committee President Damir Lacković, who claimed citizens were not prevented from speaking but were merely asked to wait until after official reports. Radojčić asserted that citizens understood Lacković's proposal to mean they would only get a chance to speak very late in the proceedings, if at all. "Citizens understood that very well: they were prevented from asking questions," she stated. Following the citizens' exit, Radojčić postponed the session, stating it could only reconvene when conditions allowed for genuine public participation.

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According to the minister's words, we learned that for a smaller part of the waste, which is not buried, that is, the one on the surface, remediation is planned only for a year from now. And there is still no word about the buried waste.